minneapolis – Somehow, it will end, although your guess is as good as mine. In Game 4 on Friday night, the Lynx and Liberty arrived at a familiar venue in unfamiliar ways. Neither team cared about the appearance of an early lead or deficit. This time, they played a game that felt true to the series from tip to buzzer: awkward, tense, more a matter of execution than planning. Jonquel Jones’ layup with a minute left was the score at 80-80, the 13th tie of the game. With 18 seconds left, as the Lynx looked for one last shot, Bridget Carlton grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled on a putback attempt. He made two free throws for the 14th and final lead change, 82–80. The two best WNBA teams head to New York on Sunday night for a decisive Game 5 where they seemed destined to go for a long time.
Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve explained the closeness of the game in terms of “information gathered”. Game 5 This will be the ninth time these teams face each other this season, and the familiarity is starting to show. “Everything is getting harder,” Reeve said. “There’s no mystery at this point.” The teams’ de facto captains, products of the same college program and models of the league’s prosperity at power forward, create similar matchup problems for each other. Chief Guard can claim coronation momentsLast night, both starting centers traded threes. The styles may clash, but point-blank never takes away from the thrill of the Spider-Man series.
Cancel out the advantages that these teams acquired in the regular season – their rotating and disruptive defensive leaders, their mobile bigs, their spacing, their depth – and what are you left with? A series is decided entirely on the margins, based on a rebound or a missed bunny or a turnover or a tough shot. Close games are everyone’s fault and everyone gets credit for it. To give all due, valid attention to the star matchups in this series, my Game 4 notes are filled with the names of attractive role players and bench players: Leo Fibich, Cesi Zandalasini, Dorka Juhasz, Nyra Sabally. Whatever you think will make a difference in Game 5, you are right.
Maybe it’s fatigue. Nearly every player in the postseason is playing the longest postseason of her WNBA career after one of the longest regular seasons of her career. (The “off day” between Games 4 and 5 is also a travel day.) Alana Smith made some great balls and played heavy minutes late in the game despite her injury, but was still quite slow. Has been. Both Collier and Stewart expended considerable energy ensuring the safety of their teams; It’s not hard to draw a line from Stewart’s defensive prodigy to his 5-for-21 shooting night, which occurred due to a complete lack of legs.
It might be the officials who make their mark at WNBA games. If any moment in these finals felt particularly thrilling, it was courtesy of Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello, who might look as sad as he did if he was being told his house burned down. After Friday’s game, he used a question that was more or less “talk about how good your players are” as an opportunity to bring up the game’s free-throw disparity – prompting the Lynx to line up to Liberty’s nine. But got 20 attempts. (For what it’s worth, I disliked some of the early calls on Stewart and Jones, although Stewart did get three fouls between his fourth and fifth.) “I’m one of the best bloody coaches in this league but this is what I Disturbing,” Brondello said to the entire room. “Just be fair. If they’re getting hit, it’s a bloody foul.” He hinted at his counterpart’s work in the press conference. After Game 3, differences emerged in the way Reeve thought Stewart and Collier were employed.
Brondello had another regret, another moment that might have made the difference, when the game was still 80-80 with 30 seconds left. After Jonquel Jones missed a midrange fadeaway, Stewart used all her remaining energy to put the offensive rebound away from Kayla McBride. Brondello said he then tried to call a timeout, but the referees never heard him. Stewart kicked the ball to Ionescu for a reset, but it bounced back into his hands and the possession ended in a shot-clock violation when Stewart’s turnaround attempt missed the rim. Everyone could have done better, Brondello said, about re-framing the room, “including me giving that bullshit timeout.” But then, when Jones patted his back affectionately, Brondello apologized for using the curse word. There can only be so many surprises in a series.