“That they’re an eighth seed is really cruel for the No. 1 seed,” Reeve quipped.

So as brutal as it was to be facing elimination after Sunday’s 91-75 Game 1 loss, it was a situation that Reeve and her team had braced for.

“It’s every matchup,” Reeve said. “It’s not about seeds this year. It wouldn’t be shocking for any of the ‘lower seeds’ to be successful. It just wouldn’t. Especially in a three-game series.”

Three. Game. Series.

Long enough to feel fair. Short enough for randomness to still shake things up.

The league has twisted the cube every way possible to find the best way to play a three-game series. Minnesota’s predicament is the latest bug.

From 1998-2009, home court was essentially delayed. The series started on the floor of the lower-seeded team, then Game 2 and, if necessary, Game 3 were played at the higher seed.

Under that format, Game 1s were more unpredictable — teams with home-court advantage went 35-36 — and the format produced more series that went the full three games (41 of 71, or 57.7 percent) than any other.

But the higher-seeded team still won 77.5 percent of the series.

From 2010-15, and again in 2025, the higher seed got home-court advantage for Game 1, then the locations swung back and forth the next two games.

Typically, higher seeds protected their home court in Game 1 (30-10). But lower seeds were still competitive when Game 2 shifted to their arena (18-22).

The win-or-go-home Game 3s became the toss-ups. Higher seeds ended up with a slight edge, 11-9.

So even if the Lynx bounce back Tuesday night in Game 2, they’ll have a battle on their hands in the deciding game Thursday.

From 2022-24, the higher seed got Games 1 and 2 at home and the outcome was undeniably lopsided. The higher seed won all 12 series and swept nine of them.

The tipping point was when Stephanie White’s Connecticut Sun swept Caitlin Clark’s Fever without Indiana getting to play a home game. Two weeks later, the league announced a return to the 1-1-1 format for 2025.

“I’ve been a part of this league for a long time,” said White, now on the Fever’s sideline. “I think the [current] format is the best of the worst-case scenario.”

Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon agreed.

“In this format, OK, we get two home games,” she said. “But in Game 3, the amount of pressure and tension that has built up at this point, throw everything out the door. Might as well be on the street playing basketball because I wouldn’t consider that a huge advantage. Anything can happen in those game scenarios.”

The solution, to White, is simply extending the series.

“The league is ready for a five-game … ” she said, then quickly adjusted. “The league is ready for a seven-game series. Like, who are we kidding? Like, we’re ready to play. But I understand that there are growth edges and growth opportunities. And I also understand where we are. So, it is an imperfect system. But it’s better than what it was a couple years ago and we’ll continue to grow it and make it better.”

Reeve added another dimension. With expansion and free agency spreading talent across 15 teams, there’s a higher level of parity than a decade ago when the Lynx, loaded with stars from Lindsay Whalen and Rebekkah Brunson to Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles, won four championships in seven seasons.

“We just didn’t have that before,” Reeve said. “When Whalen and Brunson were playing and you had the one seed and you were playing the eighth seed. Yeah, you had to play, but there wasn’t real concern that you weren’t going to be successful.”

Between a format that’s proven to be volatile and talent stretching from the top to the bottom of the league, higher seeds — even ones as dominant as the Lynx were this season — aren’t as invincible.

Reeve acknowledged, though, that as stressful as it might be for her team, it’s intriguing from the outside.

“Having a truly wide-open championship is just fun for fan bases, fun for viewership, all the things,” she said.

Julian Benbow can be reached at julian.benbow@globe.com.