FILE– Kamiah Smalls #8 of the Minnesota Lynx goes to the basket as forward Natasha Howard #6 of the New York Liberty defends during the game at Barclays Center on June 07, 2022 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. – Sarah Stier/Getty Images/AFP
NEW YORK— The New York Liberty are back in the Finals, looking for the first championship in franchise history. They’ll have to beat the Minnesota Lynx to do it.
The Liberty advanced to the WNBA Finals for the second straight year after knocking off the two-time defending Las Vegas Aces in the semifinals. They’ve made the championship round five times and lost each one.
The Lynx made it this far for the first time since 2017 when they won the last of their four championships during a seven-year span. Minnesota needed five games to advance to the Finals, beating Connecticut at home Tuesday night in the decisive game.
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Game 1 of the best-of-5 Finals is Thursday night, giving the Lynx little time to recover and prepare for the Liberty.
“Talk about the schedule, who cares. Nobody’s going to feel bad for us,” Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said. “Got to go hooping right away and we’ll do that.”
These two teams faced off for a title already this year when Minnesota won the Commissioner’s Cup championship back in June.
New York is hungry for a championship after falling just short against Las Vegas last season. The Liberty went to the finals in three of the league’s first four years and lost each time to the Houston Comets. Then they lost two years later to the Los Angeles Sparks.
“We haven’t done anything yet,” said Breanna Stewart, who had 19 points, 14 rebounds, five assists and four blocks in the clinching win over Las Vegas. “This was a tough series, an emotional series, for a number of different reasons (there’s) just the feeling of not satisfied.”
The Liberty have been playing with a scar all season and used that to lead them to the best record in the league which secured home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.
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“We went to the Finals last year,” Stewart said, “and we didn’t do nothing.”
The Lynx won’t be scared of New York, having won two of the three regular season meetings and the Commissioner’s Cup championship.
“I think the regular season doesn’t mean anything, they are an amazing team,” Minnesota star Napheesa Collier said. “It’s going to be a great series, great basketball. Two teams with great players competing.”
Collier was the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award and was runner-up for the WNBA MVP.
With three more wins, Minnesota will be the first WNBA team to win five championships, breaking a tie with the Houston Comets and the Seattle Storm.
The first two games will be in New York with Minnesota hosting the next two. There’s a potential conflict for Game 4 on Friday, Oct. 18, with the Minnesota Timberwolves hosting the Denver Nuggets in an exhibition game the same evening.
The Lynx and Timberwolves share the same home court.