The Guru’s WNBA Report: New York Tops Las Vegas While Connecticut Upsets Minnesota in Best-of-Five Semifinals Openers

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

With Caitlin Clark’s sensational rookie season and its myriad of records now in the rear-view mirror in the wake of the Indiana Fever’s 2-0 elimination, the WNBA opened semifinal play Sunday in the two best-of-five series with suspense ahead the rest of the way.

Holding home court advantage the top-seed New York Liberty began its revenge tour in the afternoon bill on the two-time defending champion and fourth seed Las Vegas Aces by taking a big lead early and then turning aside a late rally to go up 1-0 with an 87-77 victory at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Then Sunday night the perfect string of 2-0 home court victories from the four opening rounds plus the Liberty win over the Aces got stuffed in stunning style by the third-seed Connecticut Sun winning 73-70 over the second-seed Minnesota Lynx in the Target Center in Minneapolis, ruining a celebratory day earlier with the Lynx headlining the latest set of postseason awards voted by the WNBA national media panel.

Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, the La Salle grad from South Jersey who earlier this month was similarly honored by the Associated Press was named Coach of the Year while a separate panel of the team front office leaders named her Basketball Executive of the Year.

The coaching honor sets a record for Reeve, the gold-medal winning USA Olympic coach in Paris in August, with her fourth award, snapping a tie with Van Chancellor (1997-99) and Mike Thibault (2006, 2008, 2013).

Reeve, who has won four WNBA crowns with Minnesota, won in 2011, 2016 and 2020.

She also joins Dan Padover as a two-team winner of the executive award.

Lynx forward and former UConn star Napheesa Collier, also on the Olympians, was named defensive player of the year in the voting completed at the end of the regular season though her headlines in the 2-0 first-round sweep of Phoenix occurred with 38 points and then tying a playoff record with 42.

Collier was joined on the all-defensive first team by the Aces’ A’ja Wilson, the unanimous choice for MVP; Seattle’s Ezi Magbegor, the Connecticut Sun’s DiJonai Carrington, and New York’s Breanna Stewart, a former UConn standout who joined the Liberty from Seattle last season.

Broomall and Saint Joseph’s alum Natasha Cloud, who joined Phoenix from Washington this season, was named to the second team along with Seattle and former Stanford star Nneka Ogwumike, Connecticut’s Alyssa Thomas, the Maryland alum out of Harrisburg; New York’s Jonquel Jones, who played at George Washington; and Minnesota’s Alanna Smith, another former Stanford star.

Stewart Leads New York Over ‘Vegas

In New York’s win Stewart had 34 points, while former Oregon star Sabrina Ionescu had had 21, and Jones double doubled with 13 points and 12 boards.

Wilson scored 21 for the visitors but was held to six boards; Kelsey Plum, who held the NCAA Division I women’s career scoring record at Washington broken by Clark last winter at Iowa, led the Aces with 24 and former Notre Dame standout Jackie Young scored 17.

Stewart, last season’s MVP ahead of the finals, spoke of how she wasn’t her best last year when New York fell 3-1 in the title round.

“I think I've just kind of grown from it, had a lot of time to reflect on it,” she said. “How can I be better. How to handle things collectively better. I don't forget who I am and what I can do. That wasn't my most proudest, but I'll continue to be better now.”

Game 2 in Brooklyn is Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN2, followed by the Lynx-Sun game at 9:30 p.m. on the same platform.

The series both shift to Connecticut and Vegas Sunday, times and platforms to be determined.

“Do or die, you have to win Game 2,” said Vegas coach Becky Hammon. “No other way around it.”

New York won all three Vegas games this past summer opposed to a year ago when the Liberty started West at 0-2 and could not fully bounce back though they took Game 3.

In this one they jumped to a 28-21 lead after one quarter then fell to just three up before taking a 10-point lead to the break, with Stewart already collecting 20 points.

“I think I wanted to come out and set the tone, be aggressive and take what the defense was giving me,” she said.

The Liberty rolled to a 62-44 advantage in the third before being slimmed by the Aces, coming within six.

But New York would not break in front of its sellout crowd in a series first where the previous season’s finalists met in the semifinals.

Connecticut Opens Upsetting Minnesota

New York, one of the original eight charter teams, has never won a title. Neither has Connecticut, which came along as Orlando a few years later before the Mohegan tribe purchased the franchise in 2003.

It’s a long way to go yet before there’s the chance the two could turn the final into a Northeast Amtrak series but after the Liberty prevailed the Sun followed up against Minnesota.

Marina Mabrey, who came to the Sun from the Chicago Sky in a mid-summer deal, had 20 points, while Thomas had a near triple-double with 17 points, 10 rebounds, and nine assists.

Carrington had 13 points, while Bonner had 10 points and 11 caroms.

Defensively, the visitors held Collier to 19 points and nine rebounds, while Carleton had 13 and Kayla McBride scored 12.

Carleton shook off the loss.

“It's a long series for a reason. We have all the faith in the world that will perform better on Tuesday night and hopefully come out with a win,” she said.