After a set of games that saw the Atlanta Dream beat the New York Liberty and the Phoenix Mercury upset the Dallas Wings, New York now occupies the final playoff spot. That’s very bad news for the Minnesota Lynx, who still hold the No. 1 seed over the Golden State Valkyries.
While the Lynx can still fall into second place and the Liberty have a very small chance of climbing out of eighth, there’s now a pretty good chance that the two will meet in the first round. New York is the one team in the bottom half of the playoff picture that the Lynx wanted to avoid at all costs. This is not to say that the Wings or Mystics would be easy opponents—Paige Bueckers can keep her team in any series, and the Mystics are big, physical, and excellent defensively—but at least those two teams aren’t led by three veteran stars who just won a title together two years ago.
Minnesota is under a lot of pressure to finally bring home another title with Napheesa Collier, Courtney Williams, and Kayla McBride. New York is the scariest first-round matchup they could draw with such high expectations to live up to.
The Lynx haven’t played the Liberty particularly well this season
Every time the Lynx and Liberty meet, it’s a great game. There’s a lot of talent and superstar power between the two teams—and it’s one of the league’s best rivalries of the last few years. In 2024, the Liberty claimed their first title against the Lynx in a controversial Game 5. The Lynx had a two-point lead when a questionable foul call sent Breanna Stewart to the line to force overtime. Minnesota had chances to clinch the victory in overtime, but that foul call became the story of the series.
This year’s regular-season matchups haven’t disappointed either. Although Napheesa Collier missed two of the three games, all of them were close and filled with thrilling plays.
The Liberty got the better of the Lynx once again, winning the season series 2-1. They took the last game 93-81 this weekend, bothering Olivia Miles with their full-court pressure and holding Collier to just 14 points.
Overall, the Lynx have been the most dominant team in the W this year, but the Liberty can beat them. They may have some disadvantages in a series, like their rookie head coach having to go up against Cheryl Reeve, but those things don’t matter as much in a best-of-three first-round series.
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