WNBA finals Game 5: Minnesota Lynx v New York Liberty – live | WNBA

Ionescu is 1-for-17. And New York are still winning. Who would’ve guessed that?

New York have been so close to putting this away already. Can they exorcise some demons and hang on here?

Lynx 60-65 Liberty, 3:14 left, overtime: Fiebich opens with a 3! That’s just the second for New York in this game.

Sabally commits a foul but then snares the rebound on a Williams miss. Williams hasn’t been herself tonight.

Fiebich tries another 3 with the clock running down but misses. Williams misses a tough layup.

New York turnover. Williams misses again and gets the rebound, but Sabally gets a steal and a breakaway layup.

Timeout Minnesota.

End regulation: Lynx 60-60 Liberty

Stewart makes the second. Tied.

Stewart makes the first …

Replay shows Smith got Stewart on the wrist.

Can Stewart hit two clutch free throws after missing two?

Or it’ll be a foul. Smith fouls Stewart, who’ll shoot two.

Or maybe not – Minnesota are challenging the call.

Lynx 60-58 Liberty, 5.2 seconds left, 4th quarter: Ionescu misses a 3. Carleton gets the rebound.

Collier misses a layup. Stewart gets her 15th rebound.

Timeout New York.

The next update will announce the 2024 WNBA champion. Or overtime.

Lynx 60-58 Liberty, 33 seconds left, 4th quarter: Oh, big call here. Carleton is called for blocking on Jones. That easily could’ve gone the other way.

Collier gets her fifth foul.

Stewart misses both free throws! New York retain possession.

Lynx 60-58 Liberty, 1:04 left, 4th quarter: Jones misses, and the Lynx gain possession.

Collier drives the baseline, and Minnesota lead again.

Stat check …

Collier has 20, shooting 10-for-20. She’s also the leading Lynx rebounder with seven.

Jones leads the Liberty with 17 points. The next two scorers are both German national teamers – Sabally with 11, Fiebich with 10.

Stewart has 14 rebounds.

Lynx 58-58 Liberty, 1:35 left, 4th quarter: New York commits its fifth team foul somehow, so McBride goes to the line. She makes both.

Stewart misses. Collier rebounds. Williams sizes up the defense and gives it to Collier, who drives and ties it.

Timeout New York.

Lynx 54-58 Liberty, 2:08 left, 4th quarter: McBride. Again. So many driving layups.

AND FINALLY … Ionescu hits a 3! First field goal of the game for her, first 3 of the game for New York.

Collier gets inside to answer at the other end.

Ionescu figures she’ll have another go. Misses, but ends up with the rebound and feeds it to Stewart, who’s making a textbook backdoor cut and finishes. Beautiful.

Lynx 50-53 Liberty, 3:41 left, 4th quarter: Another missed 3 for New York. Jones keeps it alive for Fiebich to get the rebound, and the German Olympian drives and draws a foul. Makes both. New York by 3.

Lynx 50-51 Liberty, 3:57 left, 4th quarter: Another jump ball! Are we in the 1950s? Collier ties up Jones inside.

For once, McBride doesn’t get possession. Fiebich gets it. But Ionescu tries an impossible runner and is 0-for-13.

Stewart gets a big block on Heideman, and Fiebich breaks a couple of ankles en route to a layup. Liberty back in front.

Heideman 3-pointer misses. Ionescu gets the rebound and is knocked to the floor by Collier – that’s her fourth. Uh oh.

Can the Liberty really win this game without a 3-pointer? Or without a field goal from Ionescu? They’re shooting 30.4% from the field, including 0-for-14 from 3-point range. Their free throws – 15-for-17 – have kept them in it. They’ve also built up a rebounding advantage – 34-27, with Stewart hauling in 14.

Lynx 50-49 Liberty, 5:29 left, 4th quarter: Replay shows I might have been harsh in saying Smith tried a judo toss. I think either player could’ve been called for the foul, though.

Beautiful pass from Stewart inside to Jones, who might be the MVP at this rate. She scores again.

Carleton and Fiebich miss at each end.

McBride finds a seam and scores. Maybe she’ll be MVP? Nah – if Minnesota win, it’s Collier.

Hiedeman ties up the ball with Sabally. Shot clock down to four, and even after New York take possession, they only have time for Ionescu to heave up a prayer.

Heideman takes the feed from McBride at the other end, and just like that, Minnesota reclaim the lead.

Timeout New York.

Anonymous email: “What’s with the foul disparity–do the Lynx have it coming to them with aggressive coverage(s)?”

I think it also has to do with the Liberty working the ball inside – a good choice when they can’t hit a 3-pointer. Or maybe the back-and-forth accusations of favoritism from each coach in this series have warped the officials’ minds.

Lynx 46-47 Liberty, 7:26 left, 4th quarter: Ionescu heads to the bench.

Jones gets tangled with Smith. Smith tries a judo toss but gets hurt in the process, while Jones is whistled for the foul. Life no longer makes sense.

Timeout Minnesota.

Whichever team regains composure first will probably win.

Lynx 46-47 Liberty, 7:39 left, 4th quarter: Thornton starts the quarter by swiping the ball from Williams. But Ionescu misses – she’s 0-for-11 from the field.

Collier tries and tries and tries to get past Thornton and finally lowers her shoulder with two seconds on the shot clock. In professional basketball, for unknown reasons, that’s always called against the defense.

In the midst of a few misses in a frenzied sequence, McBride hits a layup.

End 3rd quarter: Lynx 44-47 Liberty

Lynx 42-45 Liberty, 50.9 seconds left, 3rd quarter: Courtney Williams resumes being Courtney Williams with a nifty drive.

Jones turns it over. Williams misses a tough pullup jumper.

Sabally, who has had a huge impact off the bench for New York, drives at Smith and draws a foul. She played with Ionescu at Oregon, and she played with Fiebich on the German Olympic team. More importantly, she hits both free throws.

New York nearly forces Minnesota to rush a shot as the clock runs down, but Collier gets free after setting a pick and takes a short feed from Williams to score.

Sabally again draws a foul and hits one of two.

Williams misses, and New York feeds it inside to Jones against Collier. The Lynx star commits her third foul. Jones hits both shots.

Lynx 38-40 Liberty, 3:07 left, 3rd quarter: Jones fouls McBride as bodies get tangled at the top of the arc.

Fiebich gets a steal, Ionescu gets the ball and lobs it up to Sabally, and the game is tied!

McBride misses, Ionescu threads an impossible pass to Sabally, and the Liberty lead!

Timeout Minnesota.

Lynx 38-36 Liberty, 4:02 left, 3rd quarter: Smith misses a long 3.

Ionescu again forces things, but this time, she at least draws a foul from McBride. She’s 0-for-9 from the field. Can she finally get her first points here? Yes – she hits both.

Carleton, the Canadian player in the Lynx lineup, hits a 3-pointer from Vancouver.

Collier blocks Fiebich’s shot with the shot clock running down.

Stewart returns the favor and gets a block on Collier.

This is a good time to mention that New York have missed all 11 of their 3-point attempts.

McBride’s shot is blocked by Ionescu.

Jones battles inside – the hoop and a foul. She has 12. With the free throw, make it 13.

Lynx 35-31 Liberty, 5:53 left, 3rd quarter: Jones misses a 3 – that’s probably not the shot New York wants.

Collier tries an acrobatic shot in the lane but misses, and Stewart gets her 12th rebound.

Jones finds Ionescu for the drive, and … was she fouled? Certainly seems so, but no whistle.

Lynx 35-31 Liberty, 6:49 left, 3rd quarter: Laney-Hamilton swipes a pass, but the New York offense still looks out of sorts, and the possession ends with a Stewart miss.

Williams misses, and Stewart gets her 11th rebound.

Laney-Hamilton drives and expects a call, but she’s not fouled.

Smith does draw a foul at the other end for Minnesota’s first free throws of the game. Misses the first, makes the second.

Lynx 34-31 Liberty, 8:31 left, 3rd quarter: And Stewart takes a step toward proving me wrong with a nice fadeaway jumper.

Then after a Liberty defensive stop, Stewart barely draws iron on a 3-pointer.

Foul on Collier for putting a little bit of oomph when setting a pick on Ionescu.

Laney-Hamilton hits a sweet pullup jumper, and … the Liberty are within three?

Timeout Minnesota.

ESPN has Breanna Stewart mic’d up, and she told her team the shots will start falling.

Not if they take the same shots they took in the first half.

Stats of note …

For Minnesota, Napheesa Collier is putting on an MVP-caliber performance. She has 14 points on 7-for-13 shooting. Kayla McBride has nine.

For New York, you can’t fault Breanna Stewart’s effort. She has 10 rebounds. But she’s 2-for-9 from the field. Sabrina Ionescu is simply having a nightmare – 0-for-8.

Despite Stewart’s efforts, the Liberty haven’t had a massive edge on the boards – they have 19 to Minnesota’s 17.

Minnesota’s ball movement has been superb. They have 11 assists on 16 field goals. They have not yet attempted a free throw.

Halftime: Lynx 34-27 Liberty

Lynx 32-23 Liberty, 1:59 left, 2nd quarter: Jones goes after Smith inside and draws a foul. She hits both free throws. ESPN says the Liberty have made 28 straight at the line. That’s why Game 4 was close.

Ionescu tries to drill a pass into Jones, and she’s a little lucky that Collier fouled inside. Fiebich misses a 3. Stewart gets the rebound but misses a shot. Stewart battles for another rebound and draws a foul from Williams.

And the Liberty’s free-throw streak ends with Stewart’s first attempt. She makes the second.

Lynx 32-20 Liberty, 2:49 left, 2nd quarter: The crowd wants a traveling call. It will not happen. Collier scores.

Minnesota calls timeout, perhaps in order to make a bunch of substitutions – among them, Courtney Williams will return after a long break. The sparkplug guard was winded through much of the fourth quarter in Game 4. She plays at 110 mph and knows nothing else. (Someone can surely convert that to km/h.)

Lynx 30-20 Liberty, 3:12 left, 2nd quarter: Jones gets trapped inside in a triple-team.

Collier gets called for traveling. See, that IS sometimes called in the pro game!

Laney-Hamilton gets a nice roll on a turnaround jumper in the lane.

Heideman sprints down the court to score for the Lynx.

Fiebich tries to force a pass and turns it over.

Collier misses a 3.

Stewart drives awkwardly and turns it over.

Collier fakes and hits a bank shot. Ten-point lead. She has 12. She’s the only US national team who’s looking like an Olympic champion here.

Lynx 26-18 Liberty, 5:38 left, 2nd quarter: Ionescu misses a tough layup. She’s 0-for-6. Shocker from the player who was basically the predecessor of Caitlin Clark in college.

Liberty get a steal and a fast break, and Heideman blocks Fiebich’s layup attempt.

Timeout New York.

Lynx 26-18 Liberty, 6:52 left, 2nd quarter: Leonie Fiebich draws a foul and hits her two shots. She and Jones have 12 of the Liberty’s 18 points.

Smith puts up an airball from 3-point range.

Lynx 26-16 Liberty, 7:23 left, 2nd quarter: Jones gets a layup for the Liberty. She has 6 points.

McBride hits a long 2.

Breanna Stewart scores! A difficult jumper in the lane. Will that get her on track? (Note to sports commentators: It’s “on track.” Not “untracked,” which is a bad thing.)

Defensive stop for New York, and Fiebich scores on a nice drive. The German national teamer has been a solid contributor in this series.

Collier scores. Stewart does not.

McBride hits an impossible runner.

End 1st quarter: Lynx 19-10 Liberty

Lynx 19-10 Liberty, 43.8 seconds left, 1st quarter: Ionescu misses horribly.

Alanna Smith, who fought through back pain in Game 4, hits a nice 3.

Fiebich misses, but Williams misses once again.

The bench contributes for Minnesota – Natasha Heideman with a nice drive.

Laney-Hamilton misses for New York – she rushed that one.

McBride hands off to the onrushing Collier for a layup, and New York will take timeout.

Lynx 12-10 Liberty, 2:24 left, 1st quarter: McBride hits a smooth jumper for a long 2.

Stewart can’t get the roll on a hook shot, but Thornton gets the putback.

Lynx miss, and Sabally (who has just come in) gets inside to score for New York.

It’s another atrocious start for the Liberty, especially for their two megastars. Breanna Stewart looks tense and has put up two shots that have come up short. Sabrina Ionescu has been nowhere near on any of her three shots.

At the other end, Courtney Williams is now 1-for-5. Still a sweet pass to Collier to open the scoring.

Collier leads all scorers with six points.

Lynx 10-6 Liberty, 3:57 left, 1st quarter: Again, it’s Jonquel Jones picking up where Stewart and Ionescu are falling short. A strong drive brings the Liberty within four.

Williams misses a corner 3. Her shot selection has been iffy so far.

Ionescu has an open 3. It’s an airball.

Official timeout at last.

Lynx 10-4 Liberty, 4:46 left, 1st quarter: After a brutal series of misses at each end, Williams gets a rebound and hits a very short-range jumper.

Jones gets the Liberty on the board with a nice post move.

Collier gets her third basket.

Fiebich gets inside for the Liberty. Then Smith bumps into her defender at the top of the arc and winds up with an open lane for a layup.

Jones gets a piece of Williams’ shot.

Lynx 4-0 Liberty, 7:06 left, 1st quarter: Williams opens things up with a beautiful bounce pass down the lane for Collier. What a series the Lynx point guard is having.

The Liberty respond with a horrid sequence of pointless passes that result in a leaning off-balance 3-point attempt from Ionescu.

Turnover Williams, but then the Liberty fail to take advantage as Stewart’s shot barely draws iron.

Collier gets her second bucket, this time on a feed from McBride.

The next 90 seconds are not memorable.

Lynx 0-0 Liberty, 10:00 left, 1st quarter: We’re off at last.

Tipoff has not actually happened yet. We were deceived.

New York’s title drought

Coming up on ESPN …

Spike Lee.

The WNBA has arrived.

Tipoff in 31 minutes and 45 seconds – around 8:06 p.m. Eastern time.

It all comes down to this …

Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s how Game 4 went down:

Bridget Carleton made two free throws with two seconds left, and the Minnesota Lynx forced a decisive Game 5 of the WNBA finals, beating the New York Liberty 82-80 on Friday night.

The teams will meet Sunday night in New York in the first Game 5 of the finals since 2019, when Washington topped Connecticut.

“Last 40 minutes of the season could be anywhere, we’re going to be out there going to war and I’m pumped,” said Kayla McBride, who led the Lynx with 19 points.

Courtney Williams added 15 points for Minnesota, which forced Liberty stars Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu into poor shooting nights. Ionescu’s heave at the buzzer didn’t hit the rim.