Connecticut Sun’s win over Minnesota Lynx delivers the perfect WNBA playoffs showdown

MINNEAPOLIS — Basketball might be a game of runs, but Connecticut vs. Minnesota basketball is a game of inches. Regardless of which arena, which lineup or which month — no two WNBA teams have been better matched, blow-for-blow, this season than these. The latest data point — Connecticut’s 73-70 win over Minnesota in Game 1 of the WNBA semifinals — was another one of those nail-biter, stomach-clenching, it’s-anyone’s-game kind of contests.

For that, basketball fans should rejoice. This is what you want to see in the playoffs. Two teams so perfectly matched that truly every possession — and really, every decision within every possession — could be the moment that changes everything.

That Marina Mabrey 3. No, it was the Bridget Carleton 3. Wait, it was that Alyssa Thomas shot feels most important. No way, that Alanna Smith block is going to change everything.

It was a game in which every moment felt monumental because you just knew the final margin would be microscopic. It’s a series that oozes with the parity of the 100-meter dash, a basketball game in need of whatever the equivalent of a photo finish might be.

The three regular-season matchups between Connecticut and Minnesota were decided by just eight total points. Heading into the fourth quarter of Sunday night’s game at Target Center, after 155 minutes of Lynx-Sun basketball this season, Minnesota — in aggregate — had outscored Connecticut by a single point (Lynx 295 – Sun 294).

“All season long, it has been a physical series. Every game has come down to the wire in the fourth quarter,” Sun forward Alyssa Thomas said. “We expected nothing less.”

In Game 1, Connecticut got the advantage, stealing a win on the road. Thomas, who finished one assist short of a triple-double, continued her season-long role as the Sun’s steadying force. She understood the gravity of each possession and her intention with which she pursued every rebound spoke to that.

Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve is well acquainted with Thomas’ specific kind of drive and how it can change possessions and games. It was the reason why, after being named the Paris Olympic coach in 2022, Reeve brought Thomas back into the player pool after a decade of Thomas declining camp invites.

On Sunday night, Thomas battled against Olympic teammate Napheesa Collier. After setting records in the first round of the playoffs, Collier was held to just 19 points and nine rebounds. On another night, that might feel like a pretty good stat line, but Collier — the Lynx’s catalyst — will likely remember the nine shots she missed or the 50-50 balls that went the other way. Pretty good is not good enough for a Minnesota-Connecticut game, and certainly not a WNBA semifinal matchup between the two.

Reeve emphasized that she was preparing the Lynx for the long haul against Connecticut. No one was planning on getting out of this matchup without going nine rounds. The 13 lead changes in Sunday’s game? That was to the script. So the Lynx going down 0-1? Not ideal, but also not a reason to panic. “It’s 40 minutes of 200 minutes,” Reeve said. “That’s the good news for us.”

It wasn’t the prettiest 40 minutes of basketball for either team, but with the two best defensive teams in the WNBA on the floor, pretty isn’t exactly the goal. Minnesota and Connecticut will look back at their game film and see plenty to clean up, but that’s only because the margin here is so small.

“The further you go in the playoffs, the harder it gets,” Reeve said. “Now it’s two teams just going back and forth, not making anything easy. And then it’s just about players finding a way to make a play.”

The good news for both teams is they have rosters full of players who can find ways to make plays. They might not have the free-agency name recognition or star power that the other semifinal between Las Vegas and New York has, but these rosters are stacked with players who created careers by making the most out of opportunities.

Mabrey, who was traded to Connecticut in July, has been a sharpshooting threat and pick-and-roll power for the Sun since her arrival. DeWanna Bonner quietly picks up double-doubles while being a matchup head-scratcher 14 years into her career. DiJonai Carrington, who played all 40 minutes on Sunday, has had a coming-out party in her first full season starting in the W.

Carleton, a second-round pick in 2019 (in a league in which lottery picks have been cut), has worked her way into the Lynx starting lineup and become “Big-shot B.C.” in the Twin Cities. Alanna Smith, who thought her WNBA career might be over when she was cut in 2022 by the five-win Fever, gives Collier — the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year — a run for her money as the league’s best undersized paint defender.

If the past is any indication, these two teams have a lot more (tightly contested) basketball to play. It’s the kind of basketball and importance a WNBA semifinals should exhibit. Both teams are preparing to deliver.

“It’s a long series,” Carleton said. “It’s a five-game series for a reason.”

(Photo of Napheesa Collier and Alyssa Thomas: David Berding / Getty Images)