Forget about the Liberty being WNBA Commissioner’s Cup champions.
And forget about all the ups and downs that transpired throughout a 44-game regular season, which ended with the team in the eighth and final playoff spot.
It’s all in the past.
The postseason is here and to start, the Liberty (26-18) face a tall task in order to upset the No. 1 seed Minnesota Lynx.
Such a feat has never been done before in WNBA history.
Yet, the Liberty like their chances.
“Yeah, I love that. We know them really well,” said Leonie Fiebich, who helped the franchise to its first-ever WNBA championship after defeating the Lynx in a thrilling five-game Finals series in 2024.
“We know what they want to do. I think we match up really well against them. I’m excited. I’m very excited.”
Game 1 Sunday afternoon at Target Center will begin a best-of-three series with the WNBA’s best regular season team out for blood after getting their hearts broken two years ago at Barclays Center.
The memory of that decisive Game 5 is enough to erase the reality that the Liberty edged the Lynx, 2-1, during this regular-season series.
Napheesa Collier (ankle) wasn’t available for those first two matchups — a 13-point Liberty home win on July 3 and a five-point Lynx home win on July 11 — while rehabbing from offseason surgery.
The five-time All-Star has since returned and reconditioned — 14 points on 63.6% shooting despite six turnovers in the September 18 matchup — since then.
Her return, however, didn’t stop the Liberty from a fourth-quarter surge that resulted in a Lynx loss earlier this month.
A similar ending in Sunday’s Game 1 dramatically shifts the momentum in the Liberty’s favor with the league’s much-talked-about first-round 1-1-1 format.
Higher seeds host Games 1 and 3 (if necessary) with lower seeds having just one home matchup in Game 2.
A late push — like the Liberty did in Minnesota earlier this month — puts Chris DeMarco’s underdog squad in the driver’s seat to close out a series in the blink of an eye.
The format, which changed two years ago from 2-1, has drawn the ire of WNBA head coaches and players leading up to the postseason.
“I just think it’s tough. Like 1-1-1 — I don’t think it’s an advantage for the higher seed personally. It needs to be 2-1 or go to a five-game series. Anything can happen in a 1-1-1. The team gets hot, a team plays well, and then yeah,” said Sabrina Ionescu, who later recanted her previous thought of the format penalizing higher seeds.
“I don’t think it’s a disadvantage, but I also don’t think it’s like a huge advantage.”
Before the Libs can even think about stealing a series, they’ll have to fight against a Lynx squad that finished top-4 in points per game (90.8 – fourth), opponents points per game (83.7 – third) and opponent’s field goal efficiency (43.5% – third).
Should be unanimous Rookie of the Year winner Olivia Miles, Collier and Kayla McBride are at the head of the snake for the Lynx (33-11). Miles, the No. 2 overall selection out of TCU in the draft, hit the ground running, averaging 19.8 points, 4.7 rebounds and 6.0 assists in her rookie All-Star season.
Her dominance frees up opportunities for her teammates — four of them averaged at least 13.8 points per game this season: McBride (17.6), Collier (16.8), Natasha Howard (14.8) and Courtney Williams (13.8).
The Liberty’s length by deploying Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, Leonie Fiebich is enough to disrupt the Lynx’s flow, but the team has shown throughout the 2026 season that there’s no guarantee to slowing down opposing offense for four quarters.
“I think we just have to keep making it about the process, and I think we’ve had really good momentum recently,” DeMarco said after his team’s regular-season finale loss. “And I’ve talked about [it] over and over again. It’s going to be 40 minutes. It’s going to be 40 minutes of focus. It’s going to be 40 minutes of effort. We’re going to need everybody.”
Then in comes the bench unit consisting of Nia Brodie, Dorka Juhasz and Maya Caldwell — a group that Cheryl Reeve has leaned out all season.
On the Liberty’s side, the team goes as far as Stewart leads them, which became clear again in Wednesday’s loss the star didn’t play in.
Without her on the court, the team’s performance drops on both sides of the floor.
The season averages — 20.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.3 blocks — to go along with her massive defensive responsibility is enough to win her a third MVP award had it not been for the otherworldly play from peers A’ja Wilson and Miles.
A recent knee injury, which caused her to miss the Liberty’s final regular season game, potentially complicates any success the Liberty wish to have this postseason.
Jones (ankle) too ended the regular season off the court.
DeMarco’s two most important stars are the engine of the Liberty. Questions regarding their health essentially lengthens the odds of a first-round upset, especially considering Ionescu’s inconsistencies due in part to health issues of her own.
But the first-year head coach believes in his team. In his eyes, they are equipped with the right tools for a push.
“I mean, obviously, sour taste in this program’s mouth from the first-round exit last year, and we have to be ready to go. It’s playoffs. I mean, it’s 0-0, and we know [we have] to go out and away again, we got to be ready to go, and we’ll be prepared, and we’re hopefully I think be healthy and be ready to go.
“But I will say this about our team: we do have a ton of fight, and when the moments become big, we have answered. And obviously, these last two games we struggled a little bit, but we’ll be ready to go against Minnesota.”