- The New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx Battled Over Five Games for the WNBA Championship
- The Liberty came away with a 67-62 win in overtime to claim their first franchise title in six tries.
- Minnesota head coach Cheryl Reeves said that the title was “stolen” from Minnesota, due to poor officiating.
It was an incredible season for the WNBA in 2024. There was a massive increase in attention and engagement on the league, and tons of action on and off the court.
In the end, the two best teams in the league staged a fantastic five-game series for the title. The #1 team came out on top as the New York Liberty edged out the Minnesota Lynx. However, it didn’t come without some controversy.
Liberty Eke Out Game 5 OT Win, Jones Named Finals MVP
The Lynx raced out to a nine-point lead after the first quarter, and were up by as much as 12 in the first quarter. But the Liberty battled back to make it a seven-point deficit by halftime, and after a back-and-forth second half, the two went to overtime for the second in the series.
However, the Lynx went cold in overtime, scoring just two points and committing five turnovers as the Liberty won 67-62 for the first WNBA title in franchise history. New York, one of the original franchises, were 0-5 in their first five trips to the Finals. But Jonquel Jones came through for the Liberty, scoring 17 points and adding six rebounds on her way to Finals MVP. It made up for poor shooting games from Breanna Stewart (4-of-15, 13 points, with 15 rebounds and three blocks), and Sabrina Ionescu (1-of-19, 1-10 from three-point land, five points).
Nyara Sabally gave the Liberty a spark in the second half, and had 13 points and seven rebounds in 17 minutes. Napheesa Collier led the Lynx with 22 points and seven rebounds, but didn’t go to the foul line and ended up fouling out herself. Kayla McBride put up 21 points in a fearless performance. However, no other Lynx player reached double digits in a difficult game.
Reeve is Furious, Claims Title was “Stolen” from Lynx
But there was some controversy in Game 5, as Alanna Smith was called for a foul on Stewart with 5.2 seconds left. The play was challenged and reviewed, but it stood and Stewart made two foul shots to send the game to overtime. Minnesota head coach Cheryl Reeve was infuriated after the game and let loose in her press conference:
All the headlines will be, 'Reeve cries foul.' Bring it on. Bring it on. Because this s— was stolen from us. Bring it on.
"It just doesn't feel right that you lose a series with that level of discrepancy. We don't have a team that whines and complains and all that stuff. Sometimes, it probably hurts us. Maybe being a little more, I don't know, something. But you have a star player like Phee (Collier) that just — I don't get it. I don't get how she can be held and go to the basket and get hit, and then a marginal, at best, at best, sends their best player to the free throw line. I mean, that's tough. It's tough to swallow."
Reeve, who was also the head coach of the gold-medal winning Olympic team, went on to throw shots at New York, who were fined in 2021 for chartering flights, which wasn’t allowed by the league then. Las Vegas were also called out for giving their players extra benefits, and potentially illegal sponsorship dealings.
The title will still count for the Liberty, but the WNBA does need to improve their officiating going into next season, especially with the increase in attention on the league.
New York and Minnesota will likely be at the top of WNBA betting sites going into next season, so a WNBA Finals rematch isn’t out of the question.
