Only Minnesota Lynx now stand between Liberty and first WNBA Finals title

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.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.“We went to the Finals last year,” Stewart said, “and we didn’t do nothing.” Sign up for Starting Lineup for the biggest stories.Please provide a valid email address.

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