The New York Liberty evened the 2024 WNBA Finals at 1-1 with an 80-66 victory over the Minnesota Lynx in Game 2 on Sunday afternoon. No team has ever come back from a 2-0 deficit since best-of-five series were introduced in 2005, so this was essentially a must-win for the No. 1 overall seed.
For much of the day, it looked like we were in for a repeat of Game 1. The Liberty were dominant early on, as they went up by double digits in the first quarter, and pushed the advantage to 17 in the second. Slowly but surely, though, the Lynx began chipping away.
With under four minutes to play, Courtney Williams got the Lynx within two, but that was as close as they would come. Betnijah Laney Hamilton, who had 20 points in her best outing of the postseason, responded with a 3-pointer from the corner to put the Liberty back up by five. A few minutes later, Leonie Fiebich pulled up from behind the arc on a three-on-one fastbreak to hit a dagger triple that would have made former Northern Iowa star Ali Farokhmanesh proud.
Breanna Stewart once again struggled with her shot, but she was everywhere on the defensive end and set a Finals record with seven steals. She finished with 21 points, eight rebounds, five assists and seven steals, and joined Alyssa Thomas as the only players in Finals history to have at least 20 points, five rebounds, five assists and five steals in a game.
The series will now shift to Minneapolis for Game 3, which is set for 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday night.