Perhaps you think that a rematch between two teams who played what might be the most thrilling WNBA Finals in league history should have arrived before the penultimate day of July. Sometimes it's best for these things to simmer, though, and in this case the time away served everyone well. The 2025 WNBA season has had months to settle into itself, to surface compelling narratives and interesting players, and here at the start of the stretch run, there is one story that matters more than all the others: There are two great teams in this league, and then there's everyone else.
Before Wednesday night, the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx hadn't seen each other since Game 5 of the 2024 Finals, which brought an entertaining and hard-fought series to a sloppy and somewhat disappointing end. They have since maintained their perches atop the league—the Liberty entered last night's game in Minneapolis with a 17-8 record and a net rating of 8.2, second-best in the league. The Lynx carried with them a 22-5 record and a sparkling 13.2 net rating. The anticipation for this rematch was somewhat diminished by the absence of Breanna Stewart, who is out of the Liberty's lineup while dealing with a bone bruise in her knee. But these teams are good enough and deep enough to turn any meeting between them into a spectacle, and that's exactly what they did throughout Minnesota's 100–93 victory.
With New York's Big Three chopped down to a Big Two, Sabrina Ionescu took it upon herself to attack the Lynx defense from every angle she could find. Presented the opportunity to fan away some of the heavy stink that her 1-of-19 performance in Game 5 of the Finals left behind, Ionescu made good. She finished with 31 points on 11-of-20 shooting, thanks to an aggressive performance that wasn't overly reliant on her outside shooting. She spent much of the game slicing into the paint with a just-beaten defender on her hip before finishing at the rim or tossing in a floater. Marine Johannes, elevated to the starting lineup to be Ionescu's partner in the backcourt, chipped in with 14 points and a few of her typically audacious three-pointers.
This league still belongs to the bigs, though, and without Stewie the Liberty were in no shape to deal with Minnesota's seemingly endless supply of length and skill. Napheesa Collier kept coasting toward the MVP award with 30 points and nine rebounds on 11-of-16 shooting. Some of the things she did to poor Leonie Fiebich were cruel and unusual. Kayla McBride went 5-of-9 from three to finish with 24 points, and Alanna Smith, as usual, held everything together. Tasked with her side's most difficult defensive assignment, she held Jonquel Jones to just 12 points. Smith scored 12 points of her own to go along with five rebounds, three assists, and three blocks.
The box score gives the impression that this was a fairly comfortable win for the Lynx, and it mostly was. Minnesota shot 48 percent from three-point range, connecting on a season-high 15 shots from distance. Collier couldn't be stopped, and even Courtney Williams's disastrous 1-of-13 shooting performance barely hurt, given that she was able to chip in with 13 assists and nine rebounds. But the Liberty, as they often (and annoyingly, depending on your perspective) do, found just enough juice late in the game to make a crummy performance look better than it was, and to give Minnesota something to think about. Minnesota was up 92-77 with three minutes to play, at which point the Liberty went on an 11–0 run highlighted by a 31-footer from Ionescu, a 25-foot step-back from Johannes, and a 23-foot bank shot from Ionescu.
Collier settled things with a three-point play to give Minnesota a seven-point lead with under a minute to play, at which point it became time to start looking ahead. Wednesday night's game was just the first of a quartet that the Lynx and Liberty will complete before the end of August. They'll see each other again on Aug. 10, Aug. 16, and Aug. 19. The Libs will have a back-to-back against the Sparks and Aces sandwiched between the first and second game of the series, but the Lynx won't play anyone but the Liberty starting on Aug. 10.
There's every reason to believe those games are going to be sick as hell. All those problems the Liberty had dealing with Minnesota's size on Wednesday can be solved through Stewart's potential return to the lineup and the arrival of 6-foot-4 forward Emma Meesseman. The reigning Euroleague MVP and former WNBA Finals MVP has reportedly had her visa application approved and could join the team as early as Friday. A Liberty team that has to depend on Ionescu and Johannes to manufacture offense is entirely different from the one that can roll Jones, Stewart, and Meesseman onto the floor. Minnesota might want to look into whether it's possible to clone Alanna Smith.
Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the Lynx's record.
