STEWART ADVANCES TO 6TH CAREER WNBA SEMIFINALS
Behind Breanna Stewart’s 21-point, five-rebound, four-assist performance, the New York Liberty became the first eight seed to defeat a one seed in WNBA postseason history, knocking off the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx, 87-71, on Tuesday night in Brooklyn, New York. Naphessa Collier scored 14 points, but only five in the second half. Dorka Juhasz recorded two steals in 14 minutes off the bench.
After the Liberty opened the scoring, Stewart picked up her first assist of the game, finding Jonquel Jones for a three-pointer to extend the Liberty lead to 5-0. A few minutes later, Collier finally scored the Lynx’s first field goal of the game with 6:31 left in the first quarter, grabbing an offensive rebound and converting the putback layup to make it 9-3 for New York. Later in the period, Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu ran a perfect pick-and-roll, with Stewart finishing the play with a layup while drawing the foul. She converted the ensuing free throw to give the Liberty a 20-13 advantage. On the very next possession, Collier received a bounce pass from Kayla McBride and finished the layup to cut the Lynx deficit to five.
Following Collier’s second bucket of the second quarter, Stewart responded with four straight points on two free throws, then finished a left-handed layup in transition to bring the Liberty lead to 35-27 with 4:30 left in the first half. Collier helped trim the lead down to six, 40-34 after handing it off to Courtney Williams for a jumper. However, the Lynx ended the first half on a 9-3 run to take a 49-37 halftime lead.
Stewart’s first points of the second half came off two flagrant free throws after Olivia Miles hit the former Husky star in the face on a layup attempt.
Just over a minute later, Collier leaked out and made a layup in transition to cut the Lynx deficit to 10, 54-44 and forced the Liberty to call a timeout. Later, Stewart found Ionescu for a three-pointer, giving the Liberty a 14-point cushion, 63-49.
Stewart’s first bucket of the fourth quarter was a milestone one, as her elbow jumper gave her 500 career postseason points with the New York Liberty, making her the first player in franchise history to reach the mark.
Collier, who was subbed out with 1:29 left in the third quarter, returned to the floor with 6:45 left in the fourth, with Minnesota trailing 78-60. However, the Lynx never made a run, failing to cut the deficit to single digits.
The loss for the Lynx repeats an all too familiar cycle in the Naphessa Collier-Lynx era. Minnesota has reached the playoffs in seven of her eight seasons with the franchise and has won at least 30 regular-season games in three consecutive seasons since 2024, becoming the first team in WNBA history to accomplish the feat. However, none of those great regular seasons have resulted in even one WNBA title. In 2024, they fell to the Liberty in the WNBA Finals, then were ousted by the Phoenix Mercury in the second round last year, and now eliminated by the Liberty once again.
The franchise has not won a WNBA title since Maya Moore led the team to three championships in 2011, 2013 and 2015.
Collier was asked after the game why the team has struggled in the postseason despite its success during the regular season.
Collier is an unrestricted free agent in the upcoming offseason.
The Liberty are just the second eight seed to advance to the semifinals. The other? Diana Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury back in 2018. The Liberty will play a best-of-5 game series against the winner of the Atlanta Dream versus Washington Mystics first round matchup. The Dream led that series 1-0 at the time of publishing.
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