New York Liberty, Minnesota Lynx look to reset for Game 2 after WNBA Finals’ chaotic opener

NEW YORK — It’s Thursday night, the final buzzer sounds, media obligations are over, phones are blowing up with messages from anyone and everyone, and one of the most dramatic and memorable WNBA Finals games in league history is in the rearview.

Now what?

You can attempt to live in the emotional high (or low) as long as possible, savoring the joy or remembering the pain for motivation. Or flush everything away and move forward, knowing that at least two more games remain in the series.

One thing Lynx and Liberty players had in common after Thursday’s epic Game 1 overtime win by the Lynx: many of them turned to the film. Even before the teams got together Saturday to regroup before Game 2, several players had to see the game again.

“I didn’t sleep till like 3:30 that night,” Lynx guard Kayla McBride said. “I told everybody my soul left my body when Courtney (Williams) made that 3. I had to watch the game in order to calm down.”

Courtney Vandersloot felt similarly after New York’s loss. Even though she wanted to be intentional about looking ahead to the great opportunity they still have in this series, she had to watch the ending once more with her wife, former WNBA champion Allie Quigley.

“We went back together and watched the last five minutes and overtime, which we usually wouldn’t do that, but there were a couple of things that we were analyzing and disagreeing on,” Vandersloot said. “I think that if we didn’t, we wouldn’t have been able to sleep. So it was kind of like let’s get it out there, let’s figure it out.”

Breanna Stewart wanted to see her missed free throw with 0.8 seconds left in regulation, the one that would have given New York the win, to make sure that she hadn’t strayed from her routine. Leonie Fiebich went through the full game three more times because it was playing over and over in her head regardless.

Lynx star Napheesa Collier, who hit the game-winner in overtime, didn’t want to watch her fadeaway over Jonquel Jones more than a couple times and stayed away from social media. But Williams didn’t have that same luxury. Despite wanting to move on to Game 2, the biggest shot of the night kept replaying around her.

“My daddy overdosed on it,” Williams said. “Even if I didn’t want to watch it, he was overdosing.”

Beyond Quigley and Don Williams, the other families and friends played a big part in the players being able to decompress from the theatrics of Game 1.

Stewart said her kids don’t notice whether she wins or loses, though she finds herself less prone to profanity in the aftermath of losses – even when her reaction to the late misses was “WTF” – because she doesn’t want the little ones hearing swear words. She also had former teammate Sue Bird and Nancy Lieberman reach out, both essentially telling her to bounce back. Sabrina Ionescu had 25 family members from California in attendance to help her think about something other than basketball. Although she said her husband’s optimism can sometimes be annoying, she acknowledged that it was helpful to have positive affirmations from the people around her.

Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve’s family took her to watch “The Lion King” musical in between hours of breaking down film. Her mind wandered during the production, which she had seen previously, but she powered through because she and her wife wanted their son to see his first Broadway show. Many of her players ended up seeing “The Notebook” — Bridget Carleton noted that the first choice, “Wicked,” was sold out – on what ended up being their first true off day in multiple weeks.

Ultimately, the off day doesn’t matter as much as what the Liberty and Lynx will do in Game 2. Stewart and Ionescu both said what made it easiest to move on was that they saw numerous ways for New York to be better than in the opener. They saw opportunities to improve their pace and increase the number of off-ball actions, both of which are in line with how the Liberty played up until this point.

And Minnesota was already thinking about how its last series went, when Connecticut stole Game 1 on the road but lost in five. If the Lynx don’t close out this series, the heroics of Game 1 will diminish and whatever high they were riding Thursday will be lost to history. In the playoffs, there is only so much time to live in the moment. Another game is always on the horizon.

“We’re definitely not coming in thinking we have this thing won,” Collier said. “We were able to steal that game but it means nothing. It means they’re going to come out even hungrier in Game 2. It’s going to be a battle.”

— The Athletic‘s Ben Pickman contributed reporting to this story.

(Photo of Kayla McBride and Sabrina Ionescu: Nathaniel S. Butler / NBAE via Getty Images)