The New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx faced off on Friday, July 28, at Barclays Center, and the Lynx won 88-83.
Heading into this game, the Liberty were without starting point guard Courtney Vandersloot, so Marine Johannes took the starting role. Vandersloot sat this game out to rest, her coach said.
To begin the game, both teams went on runs to force each other to utilize early timeouts.
New York struck first with a 10-0 run, which included Breanna Stewart hitting two 3-pointers. Then, Minnesota came out of its timeout to go on a 7-0 run to force New York to call a timeout.
The first quarter finished 22-17 with the Lynx in the lead. Diamond Miller led her team with eight points and Stewart matched her, leading the Liberty with eight points.
Coming out of the second quarter, Sabrina Ionescu started out hot, scoring eight points consecutively for the Liberty.
As the quarter continued, the teams went back and forth trading buckets, but the Lynx were slowly chipping away.
"They move the ball well, and it's contagious," Ionescu told BK Reader. "We couldn't adjust."
Minnesota's Kayla McBride hit three 3-pointers in the first half, scoring 13 points and efficiently scoring 5 of 6 goals from the field. Her teammate Diamond Miller also matched her with 13 points.
Ionescu had a great first half, scoring 18 points and hitting four 3-pointers.
As the first half ended with two seconds left, Tiffany Mitchell, came off the bench to hit a deep 3-pointer. Mitchell gave the Lynx momentum and a nine-point lead going into the second half. The Lynx started the second half with an 11-2 run, forcing the Liberty to call a timeout.
The Liberty were down by 17 points in the third quarter. The Lynx were led by McBride's 3s and Dorka Juhasz's dominance on the glass and finishing in the paint.
"Losing Courtney was a big loss for us, and Sabrina is a point guard, but it's a lot to take the whole load by yourself," said Coach Sandy Brondello.
As the game continued, each team was penalized for one flagrant foul — one from Minnesota's Mitchell and one from New York's Kayla Thornton.
The Lynx held control of the game with their lead for the majority of the second half until the fourth quarter when Sabrina Ionescu hit back-to-back 3-pointers, and Stewart went to the line to hit both free throws with three minutes left for the Liberty to cut the Lynx's lead to just 1 point.
However, Lynx guard Miller hit a 3-pointer to regain control of the game. From there, the Liberty would try to fight back, but a costly turnover and following basket by the Lynx decided the game.
Miller for the Lynx would finish with 22 points and 5 rebounds and McBride would finish with 26 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.
Sabrina Ionescu for the Liberty finished with 31 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists.
"We're not going to let this one loss stop us from building what we've been doing since we came back from the all-star break," Sabrina said.
