Courtney Williams scored 26 points as the host Minnesota Lynx defeated the New York Liberty 86-80 on Saturday from the Target Center in a battle between two teams vying for the best records in the league.
The Lynx (28-5) are now 3-0 vs. the Liberty (21-13) this season after losing to them in the 2024 WNBA Finals. The Lynx stand firmly at the top of the league standings, while the loss drops the Liberty to third place, with one more loss than the second-place Atlanta Dream.
With the Lynx ahead 83-80 with 16.4 seconds left, Natasha Cloud missed a driving layup after beating Williams to the basket. Kayla McBride made the backend of her two free throws on the ensuing possession to ice the victory.
McBride finished with 17 points. Jonquel Jones led the Liberty with 17 points.
The Liberty’s Leonie Fiebich scored a layup off an inbounds pass from Cloud to cut the lead to 82-80 with 27.2 to go.
Cloud wrapped up DiJonai Carrington for a jump ball with 25.2 seconds to go. However, McBride wound up with the ball amidst a swarm of players near midcourt and made the second of two free throws to make it 83-80.
McBride buried a 29-foot 3-pointer on an assist from Williams to give the Lynx an 82-78 lead with 31.9 left.
Sabrina Ionescu missed a pair of driving layups in traffic, the second one with 49 seconds left that would’ve given the Liberty the lead.
Williams’ shot-fake and step-through floating layup put the Lynx ahead 79-78 with 1:45 to go. Williams scored 22 of her points through the first three quarters.
The Liberty completed a furious 16-0 run to take their first lead early in the third quarter, capped off with Jones’ 3-point play and a tip of the key 3-pointer to make it 43-38. After a 3-pointer and lefty layup by Ionescu, the Liberty took a 61-60 lead at the end of the third quarter.
The Lynx led 21-12 at the end of the first quarter after a transition layup by Natisha Hiedeman. It was the lowest scoring first quarter of the season for the Liberty, who shot 0-for-7 on 3-pointers.
The Liberty bounced back in the second quarter to trim the deficit to 38-33 at halftime on a Cloud layup. The teams combined to shoot just 7-for-29 on 3-pointers in the first half.
The Lynx were without MVP candidate Napheesa Collier (ankle). Meanwhile, the Liberty didn’t have seven-time All-Star Breanna Stewart (right knee bone bruise), Isabelle Harrison (concussion) and Nyara Sabally (knee).
–Field Level Media
