Napheesa Collier and Kayla McBride lead Lynx over Liberty - ESPN

The long wait for the first meeting this season of the 2024 WNBA Finals teams ended Wednesday with a 100-93 victory by the Minnesota Lynx over the New York Liberty. The first-place Lynx are now 23-5, gaining more ground in the standings on a night when the second-place Liberty (17-9) and third-place Phoenix Mercury (16-10) lost.

The Target Center crowd of 10,824 was energized throughout, and Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said it reminded her of Games 3 and 4 of the Finals last year in Minneapolis.

«Exactly what you'd expect, regardless of who was playing for them, regardless of how far into the season it was,» Reeve said, an acknowledgment that two-time league MVP Breanna Stewart of the Liberty was out injured. «Fans were excited to see this matchup, and I thought they were treated to a heck of a basketball game.»

That said, Lynx players Napheesa Collier and Kayla McBride, who combined for 54 points, said it didn't feel as much like a Finals rematch because it was so deep into this regular season, which started May 16.

To them, it was about this one game, especially coming after a 90-86 loss to Atlanta at home Sunday.

«It's fun to compete at a high level against the second-best team in the league,» McBride said. «We didn't need a lot of motivation. We had just lost our last home game. The main thing was protecting our home court before anything.

»There's so many side stories that everybody keeps talking about. I feel like this team has really good heads on our shoulders. It could have been anybody walking in here; we just weren't going to lose two home games in a row. It was New York, and everybody has this narrative around it, and we can feel that, too. But at the end of the day, we were out there competing 40 minutes. And it