NEW YORK — The Minnesota Lynx made WNBA history Tuesday night, but not the kind any team wants. They became the first No. 1 seed ever swept out of the opening round of the WNBA playoffs, losing 87-71 to the New York Liberty at Barclays Center.
The Liberty also won Game 1 comfortably, marking the first time in Lynx franchise history that Minnesota dropped consecutive playoff games by 15 or more points. New York advances to the semifinals.
After the final buzzer, Napheesa Collier, Kayla McBride and Courtney Williams met on the court and shared a long embrace — the third straight season Minnesota's playoff run ended in heartbreak.
"We became a great regular-season team this year," coach Cheryl Reeve said, "and we ran into the wrong team."
Minnesota looked like a title favorite for most of the season, climbing to 31-7 in late August behind unanimous Rookie of the Year Olivia Miles and Reeve's coaching, which earned her a fifth Coach of the Year award. But the Lynx stumbled down the stretch, nearly sliding to the No. 2 seed, and never found that form in the postseason.
Reeve did not hide her frustration with the roster. "I thought the playoffs would be hard for our team, regardless of who we were playing in the first round," she said. "We probably needed a little better matchup to do some of the things that we did all season long, but that's not how it works."
She added that the Lynx "don't quite have the right group" to make a deep playoff run.
The loss stings for a franchise that has known far more playoff success than failure. Reeve, who became the winningest coach in WNBA history earlier this season and was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, has led Minnesota to four championships — 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017.
The Lynx came within one controversial foul call of a fifth title in 2024, falling to these same Liberty in a decisive Game 5 in Brooklyn. Now New York has ended Minnesota's season two years running, and the Lynx head into the offseason facing hard questions about a roster built to win in the regular season but not in the games that matter most.
For the Liberty, the sweep caps a stunning turnaround. New York is the first 8-seed to eliminate a 1-seed in WNBA history.
