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After a grueling regular season, with its 40-game schedule compressed to accommodate the Olympics, we’ve made it to the WNBA Finals! While the league’s viewership has steadily grown since 2020, it exploded this year thanks to generational rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. Pair that with A’ja Wilson, en route to her third MVP award (and only the second unanimous winner in W history), and 2024 has been an ascendant year for the league.
With all that momentum, there’s a lot of newfound interest in the WNBA Finals from casual fans ready to watch The New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx duke it out in the best-of-five Finals. The Lynx took three out of the four head-to-head matchups against New York this season, giving the Liberty more trouble than, well, basically the rest of the WNBA.
“They play basketball in the right way,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said of the Lynx. “Great teamwork, great defense. They make it hard for you. They have great shooting, and they space you out.”
Even if you’re not well versed in the WNBA, here’s what you need to know before things tip off tonight.
目次
- 1 The New York Liberty Are Still Looking for Their First Title
- 2 Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu Is the One To Watch
- 3 But the Liberty’s roster is stacked
- 4 The Minnesota Lynx Have Been Here Before
- 5 Lynx Are Led By MVP Runner-Up Napheesa Collier
- 6 An Array of Talents
- 7 Familiar Foes
- 8 The New York Liberty Are Still Looking for Their First Title
- 9 Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu Is the One To Watch
- 10 But the Liberty’s roster is stacked
- 11 The Minnesota Lynx Have Been Here Before
- 12 Lynx Are Led By MVP Runner-Up Napheesa Collier
- 13 An Array of Talents
- 14 Familiar Foes
The New York Liberty Are Still Looking for Their First Title
The Liberty enter this series as the title favorites, having held down the number one seed for nearly all of 2024. They went 32-8 and secured the first back-to-back 30+ win seasons in team history, while compiling the top offensive rating, third-highest defensive rating, and far and away best net rating.
This franchise—one of the league’s original eight—is still seeking its elusive first title after five Finals defeats. Last season, they made it to this final stage for the first time since 2002, but fell to the Las Vegas Aces’ repeat.
A major emphasis coming out of camp for this team was to secure home-court advantage for the playoffs. Only the Indiana Fever outdrew the Liberty crowds this season. Rising star of Ellie the Elephant—the team’s mascot that became a cultural icon—has made the Barclays Center an entertainment hub all summer long. New York hasn’t lost at home this postseason, though they’ve split a pair on the road. Knowing that they’ll have three of five—if these Finals go the distance—with their fans behind them could be the difference.
Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu Is the One To Watch
Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty
Despite holding down the number one seed, the team knows that’s not enough.
“We haven’t done anything yet,” combo guard Sabrina Ionescu has said several times this postseason, first after ousting Atlanta following a playoff career-high 36 points.
For Ionescu, nothing is guaranteed.
The 2020 No. 1 pick came into the WNBA projected for stardom, but played only 10 quarters of her rookie season before suffering an ankle injury that sidelined her for the remainder of that year. It took another season before she was right again, and another after that for a healthy offseason.
In 2023, she put it all together, setting the record for threes made while shooting at a 43 percent clip. The viral shooting display at All-Star Weekend, where she made 20 straight (and 25/27 overall) to win the three-point contest, remains a key milestone in her career.
After struggling in the paint during last year’s playoff run, Ionescu put in offseason work developing a floater that made her a three-level scoring threat. All those hours in the gym have paid off in this postseason, where Ionescu has taken her game to another level, averaging 20 points a night while also pulling down five boards and handing out five dimes.
But the Liberty’s roster is stacked
Ionescu won’t have to do it all on her own.
Two-time MVP Breanna Stewart is no stranger to winning championships. She swept all four NCAA tournaments during her time at UConn and has already added a pair of WNBA titles to her resume. She mirrored Ionescu’s mantra after closing out the Las Vegas Aces in four games: this was just another step towards overcoming the 2023 Liberty’s finals loss.
For Stewart, who blemished an undefeated Finals record last year, it’s about the lessons. That’s why earning home court was vital.
“We talk about the feeling that we felt last year, because the majority of the team was here,” Stewart said. “We went to Vegas and those two games were really hard, then we came back home, and the role is reversed having home-court advantage this year. We’re excited to have our fans behind us when things do get tough or sticky. But we’re better than we were last year.”
Coach Brondello has found a ton of success in utilizing Stewart—and her 7’1” wingspan—as an off-ball roamer, cheating off her matchups to provide help, knowing that she’s got the reach and dexterity to recover when needed. Against Atlanta and Las Vegas, two isolation-heavy teams, it was easier to keep the action in front and anticipate the movement. Minnesota, with its shooting and offensive continuity, will provide a different challenge. The Lynx set an all-time mark by assisting on 76.4 percent of all their made baskets.
Stewart shares the frontcourt with another former MVP in Jonquel Jones. When Jones finishes with a double-double, New York is 31-3. Meanwhile, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton’s been a nightmare at 94 feet for opposing point guards throughout these playoffs. And, of course, the latest addition to the starting lineup, rookie Leonie Fiebich, whose size and spacing have led her to a league-best +75 plus-minus this postseason (Ionescu is second at +47).
A reserve unit of Vandersloot, Kayla Thornton, Kennedy Burke, and Nyara Sabally offers versatility for any game script. That depth will absolutely be tested over these next two weeks.
The Minnesota Lynx Have Been Here Before
On the other side of the bracket, the Minnesota Lynx have exceeded all expectations this season. They squashed all preseason predictions to finish 30-10, the sixth-highest win percentage in franchise history. They’re no stranger to lifting the trophy: They’ve won four titles—alternating years from 2011 through 2017. The franchise is tied for the most all-time with the Houston Comets and Seattle Storm.
Lynx Are Led By MVP Runner-Up Napheesa Collier
Photo by Jordan Johnson/NBAE via Getty Images
Napheesa Collier, already a superstar, has continued to up her game, this year anchoring an ultra-athletic Lynx lineup that has found its identity in a controlled frenzy. She finished second to Wilson in MVP voting, despite stats that would have won her the accolade in many other seasons.
At just 6’1—undersized for her forward position—Collier is a symphony of intangibles that create advantages where she shouldn’t find success. Her athleticism and strength, paired with timing and basketball IQ, allow her to defend larger opponents on one end, while spacing them out with her ultra-efficient offensive bag on the other.
An Array of Talents
Collier has so much space to operate, thanks to the array of talents surrounding her. The additions of Courtney Williams and Alanna Smith, both coming over from Chicago as free agents, have been perfect complements to the 2024 roster. Williams, once most dangerous as a midrange pullup threat, has bloomed into a dynamic point guard with the confidence to test the tiniest windows with her well-timed pocket passes.
“I’ve always been a willing passer,” Williams said. “I’ve just never been put in position to have to pass so much.”
Meanwhile, Smith is one of the league’s elite rim protectors, atypical in her athleticism, but an anchor with her ability to range over as a help-side defender. This season, she shot nearly 40 percent from beyond the arc, besting her previous high by a full 10 percentage points. The matchup at the 5 between her and Jones will be fascinating, because both players have the ability to score in the paint and also clear out to create room for their teammates.
For Kayla McBride, who has spent a decade in the W, this Finals is a shot at redemption. On the court, she’s a one-stop shop for anything you can possibly want from a vet: a quick release, physical perimeter defense, and cool leadership. But McBride fell to a Stewart-led Storm team back in 2020, when she was a member of the Aces, and she’s sharing that experience as motivation.
“Don’t leave with regrets. We had a great group, but we were so exhausted with everything there was that year,” she said, referring to the Bradenton bubble that housed the entirety of the league during those early months of the pandemic. “I want to reiterate to this group that no matter what the fatigue is, no matter what’s happened, we just have right now. What we do right now can be really special.”
Bridget Carleton and Ceci Zandalasini ranked fifth and sixth in three-point percentage (ahead of McBride at eight). It’s easy to forget that Myisha Hines-Allen, yet another athletic big that can find a bucket in space, was a midseason trade addition, with how comfortably she syncs into Coach Cheryl Reeve’s rotations.
Familiar Foes
When these two teams take the court, they’ll do so as familiar foes. Ionescu, who was smothered by the Lynx’s defense on the perimeter, knows to expect heavy pressure at the point of attack.
“The last two games in the Vegas series showed us how Minnesota plays in terms of trying to congest and make you make extra passes and fly out to make things difficult for you,” she said. “We know the way they play. Defensively they’re a sound team, they’re going to continue to try to not give you anything easy, but I think we’ve been able to prepare these last few days really well on what it is we’re trying to accomplish and what’s going to be open and what’s not.”
These are 2024 WNBA season’s two heavyweights, headlined by Stewie and Phee just months before the pair of UConn alums team up to launch Unrivaled, a lucrative new 3×3 domestic league debuting in Miami this January.
The Liberty and Lynx know one another’s strengths and weaknesses; they’ll have gone through the scout and will recognize the sets. Three more wins to immortality. Will Minnesota set the record with five titles, or will New York finally earn its first?
Whoever wins, this is likely to be the most watched WNBA Finals ever.
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After a grueling regular season, with its 40-game schedule compressed to accommodate the Olympics, we’ve made it to the WNBA Finals! While the league’s viewership has steadily grown since 2020, it exploded this year thanks to generational rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. Pair that with A’ja Wilson, en route to her third MVP award (and only the second unanimous winner in W history), and 2024 has been an ascendant year for the league.
With all that momentum, there’s a lot of newfound interest in the WNBA Finals from casual fans ready to watch The New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx duke it out in the best-of-five Finals. The Lynx took three out of the four head-to-head matchups against New York this season, giving the Liberty more trouble than, well, basically the rest of the WNBA.
“They play basketball in the right way,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said of the Lynx. “Great teamwork, great defense. They make it hard for you. They have great shooting, and they space you out.”
Even if you’re not well versed in the WNBA, here’s what you need to know before things tip off tonight.
The New York Liberty Are Still Looking for Their First Title
The Liberty enter this series as the title favorites, having held down the number one seed for nearly all of 2024. They went 32-8 and secured the first back-to-back 30+ win seasons in team history, while compiling the top offensive rating, third-highest defensive rating, and far and away best net rating.
This franchise—one of the league’s original eight—is still seeking its elusive first title after five Finals defeats. Last season, they made it to this final stage for the first time since 2002, but fell to the Las Vegas Aces’ repeat.
A major emphasis coming out of camp for this team was to secure home-court advantage for the playoffs. Only the Indiana Fever outdrew the Liberty crowds this season. Rising star of Ellie the Elephant—the team’s mascot that became a cultural icon—has made the Barclays Center an entertainment hub all summer long. New York hasn’t lost at home this postseason, though they’ve split a pair on the road. Knowing that they’ll have three of five—if these Finals go the distance—with their fans behind them could be the difference.
Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu Is the One To Watch
Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty
Despite holding down the number one seed, the team knows that’s not enough.
“We haven’t done anything yet,” combo guard Sabrina Ionescu has said several times this postseason, first after ousting Atlanta following a playoff career-high 36 points.
For Ionescu, nothing is guaranteed.
The 2020 No. 1 pick came into the WNBA projected for stardom, but played only 10 quarters of her rookie season before suffering an ankle injury that sidelined her for the remainder of that year. It took another season before she was right again, and another after that for a healthy offseason.
In 2023, she put it all together, setting the record for threes made while shooting at a 43 percent clip. The viral shooting display at All-Star Weekend, where she made 20 straight (and 25/27 overall) to win the three-point contest, remains a key milestone in her career.
After struggling in the paint during last year’s playoff run, Ionescu put in offseason work developing a floater that made her a three-level scoring threat. All those hours in the gym have paid off in this postseason, where Ionescu has taken her game to another level, averaging 20 points a night while also pulling down five boards and handing out five dimes.
But the Liberty’s roster is stacked
Ionescu won’t have to do it all on her own.
Two-time MVP Breanna Stewart is no stranger to winning championships. She swept all four NCAA tournaments during her time at UConn and has already added a pair of WNBA titles to her resume. She mirrored Ionescu’s mantra after closing out the Las Vegas Aces in four games: this was just another step towards overcoming the 2023 Liberty’s finals loss.
For Stewart, who blemished an undefeated Finals record last year, it’s about the lessons. That’s why earning home court was vital.
“We talk about the feeling that we felt last year, because the majority of the team was here,” Stewart said. “We went to Vegas and those two games were really hard, then we came back home, and the role is reversed having home-court advantage this year. We’re excited to have our fans behind us when things do get tough or sticky. But we’re better than we were last year.”
Coach Brondello has found a ton of success in utilizing Stewart—and her 7’1” wingspan—as an off-ball roamer, cheating off her matchups to provide help, knowing that she’s got the reach and dexterity to recover when needed. Against Atlanta and Las Vegas, two isolation-heavy teams, it was easier to keep the action in front and anticipate the movement. Minnesota, with its shooting and offensive continuity, will provide a different challenge. The Lynx set an all-time mark by assisting on 76.4 percent of all their made baskets.
Stewart shares the frontcourt with another former MVP in Jonquel Jones. When Jones finishes with a double-double, New York is 31-3. Meanwhile, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton’s been a nightmare at 94 feet for opposing point guards throughout these playoffs. And, of course, the latest addition to the starting lineup, rookie Leonie Fiebich, whose size and spacing have led her to a league-best +75 plus-minus this postseason (Ionescu is second at +47).
A reserve unit of Vandersloot, Kayla Thornton, Kennedy Burke, and Nyara Sabally offers versatility for any game script. That depth will absolutely be tested over these next two weeks.
The Minnesota Lynx Have Been Here Before
On the other side of the bracket, the Minnesota Lynx have exceeded all expectations this season. They squashed all preseason predictions to finish 30-10, the sixth-highest win percentage in franchise history. They’re no stranger to lifting the trophy: They’ve won four titles—alternating years from 2011 through 2017. The franchise is tied for the most all-time with the Houston Comets and Seattle Storm.
Lynx Are Led By MVP Runner-Up Napheesa Collier
Photo by Jordan Johnson/NBAE via Getty Images
Napheesa Collier, already a superstar, has continued to up her game, this year anchoring an ultra-athletic Lynx lineup that has found its identity in a controlled frenzy. She finished second to Wilson in MVP voting, despite stats that would have won her the accolade in many other seasons.
At just 6’1—undersized for her forward position—Collier is a symphony of intangibles that create advantages where she shouldn’t find success. Her athleticism and strength, paired with timing and basketball IQ, allow her to defend larger opponents on one end, while spacing them out with her ultra-efficient offensive bag on the other.
An Array of Talents
Collier has so much space to operate, thanks to the array of talents surrounding her. The additions of Courtney Williams and Alanna Smith, both coming over from Chicago as free agents, have been perfect complements to the 2024 roster. Williams, once most dangerous as a midrange pullup threat, has bloomed into a dynamic point guard with the confidence to test the tiniest windows with her well-timed pocket passes.
“I’ve always been a willing passer,” Williams said. “I’ve just never been put in position to have to pass so much.”
Meanwhile, Smith is one of the league’s elite rim protectors, atypical in her athleticism, but an anchor with her ability to range over as a help-side defender. This season, she shot nearly 40 percent from beyond the arc, besting her previous high by a full 10 percentage points. The matchup at the 5 between her and Jones will be fascinating, because both players have the ability to score in the paint and also clear out to create room for their teammates.
For Kayla McBride, who has spent a decade in the W, this Finals is a shot at redemption. On the court, she’s a one-stop shop for anything you can possibly want from a vet: a quick release, physical perimeter defense, and cool leadership. But McBride fell to a Stewart-led Storm team back in 2020, when she was a member of the Aces, and she’s sharing that experience as motivation.
“Don’t leave with regrets. We had a great group, but we were so exhausted with everything there was that year,” she said, referring to the Bradenton bubble that housed the entirety of the league during those early months of the pandemic. “I want to reiterate to this group that no matter what the fatigue is, no matter what’s happened, we just have right now. What we do right now can be really special.”
Bridget Carleton and Ceci Zandalasini ranked fifth and sixth in three-point percentage (ahead of McBride at eight). It’s easy to forget that Myisha Hines-Allen, yet another athletic big that can find a bucket in space, was a midseason trade addition, with how comfortably she syncs into Coach Cheryl Reeve’s rotations.
Familiar Foes
When these two teams take the court, they’ll do so as familiar foes. Ionescu, who was smothered by the Lynx’s defense on the perimeter, knows to expect heavy pressure at the point of attack.
“The last two games in the Vegas series showed us how Minnesota plays in terms of trying to congest and make you make extra passes and fly out to make things difficult for you,” she said. “We know the way they play. Defensively they’re a sound team, they’re going to continue to try to not give you anything easy, but I think we’ve been able to prepare these last few days really well on what it is we’re trying to accomplish and what’s going to be open and what’s not.”
These are 2024 WNBA season’s two heavyweights, headlined by Stewie and Phee just months before the pair of UConn alums team up to launch Unrivaled, a lucrative new 3×3 domestic league debuting in Miami this January.
The Liberty and Lynx know one another’s strengths and weaknesses; they’ll have gone through the scout and will recognize the sets. Three more wins to immortality. Will Minnesota set the record with five titles, or will New York finally earn its first?
Whoever wins, this is likely to be the most watched WNBA Finals ever.
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