The Liberty Won The 2024 WNBA Finals In An OT Thriller Over The Lynx

The first four games of the 2024 WNBA Finals were nothing short of spectacular, with both teams winning games with big comebacks by way of late game heroics. Fittingly, Game 5 in New York continued the trend of closely fought battles, as the winner-take-all battle needed overtime to decide a new champion, with the Liberty coming back one last time for a 67-62 win in OT.

As so often happens in the final game of a series, Game 5 was a rock fight. Minnesota pulled ahead early, as Kayla McBride got hot from three, and took a 19-10 lead in the first quarter as New York’s stars were ice cold to start the game. The Liberty would settle in for the middle quarters, led by Jonquel Jones and Nyara Sabally, taking the lead for the first time in the third quarter as they locked down themselves with a 20-10 quarter to take a three-point lead to the fourth.

In that fourth quarter, the tension ratcheted up even further and the headlining stars from both teams made their presence known. Sabrina Ionescu started the game 0-for-15, but made her first shot when the Liberty absolutely had to have it, burying a deep three to give New York the lead — then found Breanna Stewart, who struggled shooting herself, for a layup to go up 4.

On the other side, Napheesa Collier had the answer with back-to-back buckets at the rim to tie the game and give Minnesota a two-point lead.

From there, things got really wild in the final minute of the game. Breanna Stewart got fouled and missed two free throws with a chance to tie the game, but New York got the rebound and kicked it out to Ionescu, who couldn’t find the range. The rebound got tied up between Jones and Courtney Williams, with the Lynx purposefully getting a violation to set their defense and the Liberty again fed Ionescu for a three, which again went begging. The Liberty then opted against fouling and got a miss from Collier on a drive with Stewart defending (and Collier wanting a foul), and called their reset timeout to advance the ball with 5 seconds to play.

On the inbound, they found Stewart who appeared to maybe travel (but perhaps just bobbled the ball) and then drew a foul on Alanna Smith that was dubious enough to get challenged by Minnesota. The call stood on review because refs deemed Smith wasn’t in legal guarding position for contact down low, even though the contact up top appeared to be hand on ball/hand. Despite the protests of the Lynx, fans, and even LeBron James, Stewart was able to hit her free throws this time around to tie things up once again.

McBride got a clean look from three to win the game at the top of the key, but wasn’t able to hit, sending the game to overtime. On the opening possession of overtime, Leonie Fiebich hit the second three of the game for the Liberty, and that ultimately proved to be the decisive bucket.

Minnesota could only muster two points in the entire overtime period (both on free throws), as New York’s defense locked down and the Lynx had trouble connecting on passes to even create decent shot attempt, much less hit them as they went without a field goal (0-for-6) in the 5-minute OT. The Liberty, meanwhile, made just two buckets but it was enough to get the win, as Fiebich’s three and a Sabally steal-and-score were the difference — with Stewart, a bit ironically, icing the game at the line.

Collier (22 points and 7 rebounds) and McBride (21 points and five assists) were terrific for the Lynx, but the rest of the team struggled to provide much support, scoring 19-combined across the rest of the roster. As a team they shot 37.1 percent from the field, and they just seemed to run out of gas for overtime.

On the other side, Jones (17 points and six rebounds) kept the ship steady while Stewart and Ionescu couldn’t buy a bucket, and earned Finals MVP honors for her consistent performance in the series, averaging just over 17 points and 7 rebounds per game in the five games. Alongside Jones, Fiebich (13 points) and Sabally (13 points) provided huge lifts in place of their other stars, as the Liberty were able to flex their depth en route to the win. Ionescu finished with just five points on an impossible 1-for-19 shooting night, but did dish out eight assists and seemed content towards the end to just kind of run the show and facilitate. Stewart finished with 13 points and 15 boards, and while she was just 4-of-15 from the field and had the notable free throw misses, she got to redeem herself at the line twice to force OT and then ice the win.

There will, of course, be plenty of discussion of the officiating of Game 5, as the Lynx shot just eight free throws to the Liberty’s 25, with the foul on Stewart that allowed New York to force OT leading the discussion. That might fuel plenty of chatter in Minnesota and nationally, but in New York they’ll simply celebrate the culmination of their year-long mission to get back to the Finals and summit that mountaintop.