The New York Liberty spent 44 games making sure nobody knew exactly what to expect from them.

Then, over two playoff games, they made it painfully clear.

New York beat the Minnesota Lynx 91–75 in Minneapolis and then came home and beat them 87–71 in Brooklyn, becoming the first No. 8 seed in WNBA history to eliminate a No. 1.

This wasn’t one upset or one fluky shooting night. It was two 16-point wins, with almost no stretch where the league’s best regular-season team looked like they even had a chance.

Minnesota went 33–11 and held or shared the WNBA’s best record from late May on. New York went 26–18, lost their last two regular-season games, and slipped all the way to eighth. The bracket says this was a massive upset.

The basketball says the better team in this matchup won twice.

Breanna Stewart Broke Game 1 Open

Minnesota actually led 44–40 at halftime of Game 1. That should’ve been the moment the No. 1 seed settled down and made the underdog feel the pressure of trying to steal a road game.

Instead, Breanna Stewart took over.

She finished with 34 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists on 11-of-18 shooting. She also added two steals and two blocks, because apparently dominating on one end of the court wasn’t enough.

Napheesa Collier spent most of the afternoon guarding her. It didn’t matter. Stewart scored through contact, pulled Minnesota’s help defense toward her, and kept finding the shooters the Lynx left open. She attempted 12 free throws, and New York knocked down 13 of its 25 threes.

Sabrina Ionescu had a simple way to describe her after the game:

She’s a walking mismatch.

That sounds like the kind of obvious compliment teammates give a superstar after a huge game. In this case, it was also the whole problem Minnesota needed to solve.

Guard Stewart straight up and she could score over or through the matchup. Send a second defender and she’d make the easy pass. Leonie Fiebich made Minnesota pay for those decisions, hitting four of five threes and scoring 16 points. Ionescu added 13 points and six assists. Even with Jonquel Jones limited by an ankle issue, New York’s spacing kept turning Minnesota’s help defense into open shots.

The Liberty won the second half 51–31. Minnesota’s response mostly came down to fouling. Collier and Natasha Howard both fouled out, and rookie point guard Olivia Miles finished with 11 points on 3-of-12 shooting and just one assist.

One game can lie. New York shooting 52% from three certainly looked like the kind of number that could disappear 48 hours later.

But the rest of it didn’t.

New York Didn’t Need The Same Game Twice

The clearest sign this wasn’t a fluke? Game 2 looked completely different and ended with the exact same result.

New York didn’t shoot 52% from three this time. They actually went 10-for-32, a pretty ordinary 31.3%. Stewart didn’t need 34 points. Fiebich didn’t need another explosion.

So Jones went straight at Minnesota instead.

She scored the Liberty’s first seven points and owned the offensive glass on the way to a 9–1 lead before the Lynx had really settled in. New York never trailed. Jones finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds on 9-of-14 shooting.

Stewart added 21 points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals, and two blocks without ever coming off the floor. Ionescu chipped in 18 points and seven assists, including four threes that seemed to show up every time Minnesota looked ready to make things close.

The three stars combined for 60 points. They either scored or assisted on 70 of New York’s 87 — one fewer point than the Lynx scored as a team.

That’s the version of the Liberty this roster was built to become. Jones established the matchup inside. Stewart handled the late-clock possessions and cleaned up mistakes all over the floor. Ionescu pulled the defense apart from the perimeter. Whenever Minnesota took away one option, New York moved to the next without forcing anything.

Minnesota Never Solved The Glaring Size Issue

The matchup problem started with a bunch of numbers that had nothing to do with seeding.

Stewart and Fiebich are both 6-foot-4. Jones is 6-foot-6. Han Xu is 6-foot-11 and comes off the bench. That gave New York a way to switch actions off Miles and Collier without immediately handing Minnesota the mismatch they went hunting for. And behind the play, the Liberty still had real rim protection waiting.

Miles spent the regular season slicing up defenses and became the unanimous Rookie of the Year while averaging 19.8 points and six assists. Against New York, she shot 4-of-20 across the two games, finished with two assists, and played only 17 minutes in Game 2.

The rookie was pretty direct about it afterward:

Their size really bothered us. It’s a tough team.

That wasn’t just a first-year player having two random bad nights. It was the same structural problem New York had already shown Minnesota during the regular season. The Liberty won two of the three meetings, including a 93–81 victory at Target Center just nine days before the playoffs. Stewart and Fiebich are one of the few wing combinations that can switch a Miles–Collier pick-and-roll without giving up a lane, and then Jones and Han make the rim feel safe even after the first defender gets beat.

The Lynx couldn’t find another reliable source of pressure. Cheryl Reeve said Miles and Howard — Minnesota’s two best players for most of the season — were “sort of rendered ineffective.” Courtney Williams scored 18 in Game 2, but that was more maintenance than an actual adjustment. Minnesota shot 40% across the series and averaged 73 points.

New York also knew exactly where to go on the other end. Jones had a size advantage inside. Stewart could make Collier work every possession. Ionescu could pull bigs away from the paint.

That’s repeatable basketball.

The Liberty Were Never A Normal No. 8 Seed

There’s a reason almost nobody around New York talked like an eighth seed after the series.

Stewart, Jones, and Ionescu won the 2024 championship together, then re-signed on multiyear deals in April after a disappointing first-round exit last season. Before this year, the Liberty had gone 70–16 when all three started together, the best winning percentage for any trio with at least 50 starts since 2002.

This season stuck a fork that identity. Ionescu started the year hurt and missed 13 games. Fiebich missed a big chunk of the schedule. Satou Sabally’s season ended early. New York started 3–4 and then got hot and won eight straight. They kept that running through the Commissioner’s Cup, but then immediately stumbled through a 2–8 stretch. They were lucky to recover with a 13–4 run before the playoffs started.

That’s how a championship core ends up with an eight next to their name.

It also happened under first-year coach Chris DeMarco, who replaced Sandy Brondello after the rough year. For months, the Liberty looked like a team learning a new system while also trying to figure out which version of the roster would actually be available on any given night.

The regular season was still important. But a 26–18 record didn’t erase the playoff experience or half-court shot creation already sitting on that roster.

The Format Helped Create The Possibility, Not The Result

Minnesota fans are allowed to hate this format.

The WNBA switched to this current bracket-style first round in 2022, matching No. 1 against No. 8 in a best-of-three. In 2025, they changed the hosting setup from 2–1 to 1–1–1 so every playoff team would get a home game. The higher seed hosts Games 1 and 3, but after losing the opener, they have to travel with their season suddenly on the line.

That’s not much protection for 44 games of dominance.

Ionescu said before the playoffs that the round should go back to 2–1 or expand to five games because “anything can happen in a 1–1–1.” Becky Hammon called the higher seed’s advantage “nothing.” Stephanie White described the setup as “the best of the worst-case scenario.” The criticism has only gotten louder now that a 33-win team’s season ended after 80 minutes of basketball.

A best-of-five would do a better job rewarding the regular season and give coaches time to make real adjustments. The league already expanded the Finals to seven games. A top seed facing elimination after just one bad game doesn't seem right.

But the format can’t become Minnesota’s alibi.

The Lynx had Game 1 at home and lost by 16. They saw exactly how New York attacked them, and lost by 16 again. A third game might’ve given Reeve another chance to solve the matchup. But nothing in the first two suggested an answer was anywhere close.

The No. 8 seed made history.

The scarier part for everyone still playing is that the Liberty didn’t look like an eight seed while doing it.

All stats courtesy of WNBA.com.

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