No one would ever suggest that the WNBA is scripted.
While other leagues are a petri dish for conspiracy theories, the NFL is rigging things for the Kansas City Chiefs! LeBron leads the way in the NBA! – this year’s finals are proof that the W has no one to call the shots. Caitlin Clark And A’ja Wilson are at home on their sofas. The showcase of super teams, the The Aces of Las Vegas And Freedom of New Yorkoccurred in the semi-final.
However, instead of destroying the intrigue, the battle between the Minnesota Lynx and the New York Liberty showcases the depth of the league and shows there is entertainment everywhere you look.
The Lynx stole Game 1 with an improbable comeback, Courtney Williams And Napheesa Collier turning what looked like a yawn into a instant classic. Breanna Stewart was a One-woman demolition team in Game 2stifling another Lynx rally and setting up the best-of-five series in front of a record crowd.
“The winner,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said after Game 2 Sunday, “is women’s basketball. The WNBA.
This has been a transformative season for the W. After steady growth over the past few seasons, the arrival of Clark supercharged interest in the league. Audiences across ESPN platforms for the regular season were up 170%, and the 27 games – so far – with a million viewers or more are almost double the previous record. Attendance increased by 48% and the 154 full houses represented an increase of 242% compared to last year. Sponsors are demanding a piece of the action.
But it wasn’t just Clark. Wilson had one of the most dominant seasons of all time in basketball, becoming Team W’s first 1,000-point player and setting the record for rebounds in a single season before winning it third MVP price.
But what stands out most is the strength of the league as a whole.
When Liberty built a superteam last season, signing Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot in response to the juggernaut that was Wilson and the Aces, most thought the rest of the league would struggle to keep up. In which Aces and Liberty found themselves last year’s final only reinforced this idea.
This season and these finals have turned that idea on its head.
There’s been a lot of talk this year about the physicality of the league, but that’s been the W’s calling card since its inception. Because women’s basketball is not played above the rim, it emphasizes fundamentals. Defense, in particular.
Having players who score is great. Having players who can stop them is even better.
Almost no one, perhaps even the Lynx themselves, would have predicted their presence at the start of the season. But they had the second-best defense in the W, and Collier surprised Wilson for Defensive Player of the Year honors. This Minnesota comeback in the first game?
The offensive brilliance of Williams and Collier was only possible because of the Lynx defense. Trailing by 15 points, Minnesota limited the Liberty to just three points over the final 5:20 minutes of regulation. During that stretch, Collier had two blocks and a steal, Natisha Hiedeman had another steal and the Lynx harassed the Liberty into a shot clock violation.
It was Proof A of what Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon meant when she said after the semifinals that her Aces were a good team with great talent while the Lynx were a great team with good talent. The game is at such a level now that any team can be a threat if built the right way.
And any team can disrupt expected narratives.
“There’s more than one way to do this,” Cheryl Reeve, who is both coach and president of basketball operations for the Lynx, said after the semifinals. “We’re not a great team, but we’re a really good basketball team.”
Now Minnesota, a team expected to finish in the middle of the pack before the season begins, returns home with a chance to win its first title since 2017.
I can’t write it any better than that.
Follow USA TODAY sports columnist Nancy Armor on social media @nrarmour.
This article was originally published on USA TODAY: The WNBA goes off-script, the result is extremely entertaining
