The Lynx showed Wednesday night why they\u2019ve been the best team in the WNBA all season, erasing a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit to knock the Valkyries out of the playoffs and become the first team to advance to the semifinal round.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Minnesota was dominant in Game 1 of the best-of-three series at home on Sunday, winning 101\u201372 behind 20 points from presumptive MVP Napheesa Collier. But Golden State was buoyed by a raucous home crowd in Game 2 and was in control for much of the night. The Valkyries stretched their lead to as many as 17 points early in the third quarter as they shot lights out from three (including 7-for-11 from deep in the first half).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Golden State led by 14 points at the end of the third quarter, which didn\u2019t bode well for the Lynx. Since the WNBA moved from playing two halves to four quarters in 2006, teams that trail by at least 14 points after three quarters had been a combined 11\u20131,262<\/a> (in both regular-season and postseason play). The Lynx had lost all 76 times they\u2019d found themselves in that situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Minnesota immediately turned things around in the fourth quarter, opening the period on an 11\u20130 run. The Lynx finally took the lead on a layup by Kayla McBride with just under three minutes to play. A Collier jumper from the left corner with 1:24 left gave them the lead for good.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI am just so proud of our effort,\u201d Collier said after the game<\/a>. \u201cI think it shows the grit and the resilience that this team has and what we\u2019ve been talking about for two years. I was really proud of us today.\u201d<\/p>\n The Lynx\u2019s win marked the end of a remarkable season for the Valkyries. Golden State is the league\u2019s first expansion team since 2008 and exceeded all expectations in its first season by going 23\u201321 to qualify for the playoffs. No other WNBA expansion team had ever made the playoffs in its first season. The last two teams to join the league had nightmarish debut seasons. The Sky went 5\u201329 in 2006 and the Dream went 4\u201330 in \u201908.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite not making any high-profile free-agent signings and relying almost solely on the expansion draft to fill out their roster, the Valkyries found incredible success in their first season. One major reason was the play of guard Veronica Burton. After seeing limited action in her first three WNBA seasons with the Wings and Sun, Burton had a breakout year for the Valkyries. She started all 44 games, averaging 11.9 points and 6.0 assists, and was named the league\u2019s Most Improved Player. Burton wasn\u2019t the only member of the team to take home some hardware. Coach Natalie Nakase won the Coach of the Year award for her work turning this bunch of castoffs into a winner.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Valkyries never stood a chance against a team as formidable as the Lynx, though. Minnesota was the best team in the league all season, finishing with a 34\u201310 record, four more wins than any other team. It had the best offense and defense in the league on a per-possession basis.\u00a0<\/p>\n After losing in the Finals last season, the Lynx are one step closer to avenging that loss. They\u2019ll face the winner of the Mercury-Liberty series in the next round. Phoenix blew out New York in Brooklyn on Wednesday night, 86\u201360, to force a decisive Game 3. That game will be on Friday night in Phoenix.\u00a0<\/p>\n Illustration by Lars Leetaru <\/p>\n \u2026 things I saw last night:\u00a0 <\/p>\n
5. The bizarre play<\/a> that resulted in the final out of a winner-take-all minor league baseball playoff game.\u00a0
4. A tough bucket by Napheesa Collier while drawing a foul<\/a>.\u00a0
3. Boston sports anchor Steve Burton\u2019s on-air message to his daughter<\/a>, Veronica, after she was named the WNBA\u2019s Most Improved Player.
2. A really difficult throw<\/a> by Jazz Chisholm Jr. to get the out at first.\u00a0
1. Rays center fielder Chandler Simpson\u2019s perfectly timed jump to rob a homer<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good morning, I\u2019m Dan Gartland. I think tonight\u2019s game between the Bills and Dolphins could get pretty ugly.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-152855","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}