Basketball isn’t just a sport. It’s also an art form, adorned in all sorts of different colors and brushstrokes.
Masterpieces do happen on the hardwood. They’ve been all the more common in this year’s WNBA Finals, a clash unlike few others in recent basketball history.
The Liberty and Lynx have conjured up captivating spells during their first four postseason contests with one another. Each game has been marked by moments of wonder — from Courtney Williams’ four-point equalizer and Napheesa Collier’s heroics in Game 1 to Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu’s outbursts in Game 3 to Game 4’s breathless finish. All of that has amounted to a 2-2 series, one in need of a decisive Game 5 to settle the score and determine a WNBA champion.
For New York, the implications of a title would reverberate for years to come. The Liberty are yet to wear the WNBA’s crown, having fallen short of the finish line on five separate occasions, most recently last year. Stewart and Ionescu have impressed at times during the series. But they’ve also been inconsistent, with subpar showings in Games 1 and 4 underpinning New York losses. Sandy Brondello’s squad can ill afford similar showings in its last duel.
Meanwhile, Minnesota is hoping to return to the WNBA’s mountaintop…
