Breanna Stewart scored 21 points and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton added 20 to help the New York Liberty beat the Minnesota Lynx 80-66 on Sunday in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals.
The win evened the series 1-1 as it shifts to Minnesota for Game 3 on Wednesday night.
Breanna Stewart, New York Liberty Forward:
“Absolutely. I think the moment the game ended Thursday night, I was looking forward to Sunday, just to be able to kind of change things, change the narrative a little bit, and know that I’m going to come out and be the same that I was and be obviously better. But throughout this entire process, my team has my back every step of the way and was just excited to have another opportunity to go to battle with them. Because we have a lot of fun in everything that we do, and you know, it’s not always like that.”
Just like Game 1, New York built a double-digit lead in the first half, only to see it evaporate. This time they didn’t completely collapse.
Minnesota was down nine early in the fourth before getting within 68-66 on Courtney Williams‘ layup with 3:40 left in the game. That was the last points Minnesota would score.
Sandy Brondello, New York Liberty Head Coach:
“Yeah, massive. They have been going under on screens so we encouraged (Betnijah Laney-Hamilton) to shoot the three. She’s a great three-point shooter. She was stroking it yesterday in practice before the game. Yeah, she was digging deep and that’s what we needed. We knew we needed to bounce back and it was a big bounce-back game. They contained Leonie (Fiebich) a little bit after what she did in Game 1 but B helped us get this margin to win the game.”
Laney-Hamilton answered with a 3-pointer in the corner to start a 12-0 run to ruin any chance of another comeback by the Lynx. Stewart’s putback with 57 seconds left gave New York a double-digit advantage. Stewart missed a free throw with 0.8 seconds left in regulation of Game 1 that would have lifted New York to victory in that contest.
The two-time MVP wouldn’t let them lose Game 2. She also had eight rebounds, five assists and a finals-record seven steals.
Sabrina Ionescu, New York Liberty Guard:
“Obviously it’s a series and it’s a chess match and they are going to throw different adjustments, and I think our ability to stay poised and being able to kind of see what it is that they are doing in real time is going to be crucial. Now we have seen their small ball lineup and we’re going to go back and find ways that we can execute while they have that group on the floor.”
Napheesa Collier had 16 points and Williams added 15 for the Lynx.
Once again the game drew a sellout crowd of 18,046 that included Jennifer Hudson, Katie Couric, Fat Joe and UConn coach Geno Auriemma. Auriemma had rooting interests on both teams with Stewart and Collier.
With the win, New York avoided going down 0-2 and having to pull off a historic comeback. All 20 teams that had been down 0-2 in the best-of-five Finals had lost the series.
Breanna Stewart, New York Liberty Forward:
“Yeah, I mean, I think we embrace it. We like it when it’s loud. We like it when it’s difficult. You know, as we did tonight when it’s so loud that you can’t hear, you know, just expecting that when we go to Minnesota, hopefully it’s going to be an incredible atmosphere for both of those games. But just continuing to stick together, and I think also, the biggest thing behind it is like not getting too high or too low, you know. Things are going to seem bigger than what they are because they are playing at home, and I’m sure Minnesota said the same thing when they are playing here. But yeah, we like to go on the road.”
Napheesa Collier, Minnesota Lynx Forward:
“I mean, yeah, obviously you want to steal one on the road. We’re really disappointed I think in how we played today but excited to go home and play in front of our crowd, and we have to respond. We have to come out playing better than we did in these two games. It’s hard. Like we are both competing for a championship. You have to play with a level of desperation from the very beginning, and so that’s what we’re going to need to do to come out in Game 3.”
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