For more than a few minutes on Wednesday, it looked like the WNBA would see two Game 3s forced on Wednesday. The Phoenix Mercury did so in dominant fashion, and the Golden State Valkyries were in the process of something similar.
Then the Minnesota Lynx woke up and ended Golden State’s dream inaugural season.
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With a 24-9 run in the fourth quarter of Game 2, the Lynx erased what was once a 17-point deficit to sweep the Valkyries and advance to the semifinals. They will play the winner of Game 3 between the Mercury and New York Liberty.
The Valkyries entered the fourth quarter leading 63-49, but then spent the next 10 minutes in a slow-motion free fall. They didn’t scored until nearly four minutes into the quarter, at which point the Lynx were only down five and absolutely back in the game. Another dry stretch opened the door for Minnesota to take the lead and Golden State couldn’t respond.
Napheesa Collier led all scorers with 24 points on 10-of-16 shooting despite the full attention of Golden State’s defense, while Kayla McBride added another 18 points and Courtney Williams paced the team with seven assists. Monique Billings led the Valkyries with 15 points off the bench.
The ending was unfortunately in line with what you might expect from an overachieving team facing one of the WNBA’s more traditional powers. The Valkyries were without All-Star Kayla Thornton and while they certainly played with vigor, there came a moment in the game where they lost all direction on offense, while Minnesota looked much more comfortable.
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Despite the ending, 2025 will still go down as a success for the team, which has rocketed to the top of the list of the most valuable franchises in women’s sports. In addition to Thornton’s All-Star leap, the Valkyries broke the wins record for an expansion team with 23, broke a WNBA record in attendance, became the first expansion team to make the playoffs in its inaugural season and had two award winners in Most Improved Player Veronica Burton and Coach of the Year Natalie Nakase.
Unlike Valkyries, Mercury have no issue forcing Game 3
Before the Lynx comeback, the Mercury rolled to a dominant 86-60 win in Game 2 of their series with the Liberty at the Barclays Center. That evened up their series 1-1 and forced a deciding Game 3 in Arizona on Friday night. It marked the Mercury’s first playoff win since the 2021 WNBA Finals.
The Liberty, who snuck out an overtime win in Game 1, were favorites Wednesday night and back at full strength. Star Breanna Stewart went down with a knee injury in Game 1, which she later revealed was an MCL sprain. Her MRI came back “relatively clean,” however, and she was cleared to return to the starting lineup after making it through warm-ups. But Stewart was held to two points and one rebound in the first 20 minutes, and she ended up being extremely limited throughout the game. Stewart finished with six points and two rebounds while shooting 2-of-6 from the field.
The Mercury picked up a dominant win on Wednesday night to force a Game 3 against the Liberty. (Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images)
(IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / Reuters)
After a tight first quarter, the Mercury took off. They went on a 15-0 run and held the Liberty without a field goal for nearly seven full minutes before taking a 14-point lead into halftime. The Liberty were held to 12 points in the quarter, and shot just 3-of-16 from the field; half of those points came in the final 90 seconds.
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The Liberty’s struggles continued into the third quarter, too. The Mercury quickly pushed their lead back to 20 points. From there, the Liberty were just about spent. They shot 2-of-15 from the field as a group in the third quarter — their first bucket came on an easy layup with about a minute left on the clock — and couldn’t get any offense working. The Mercury cruised the rest of the way to grab the 26-point win.
Alyssa Thomas led the Mercury with 15 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds. Satou Sabally added 15 points and 7 rebounds, and Kahleah Copper finished with 14 points. Sabrina Ionescu led the Liberty starters with 9 points, though none of them hit double figures. Jonquel Jones added 7 points and 13 rebounds, and Emma Meesseman put up 11 points off the bench. The Liberty shot just better than 30% from the field as a group.
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The winner on Friday night will advance to the semifinals, where they’ll take on the Lynx in a best-of-five series.