The championship aspirations of New York Liberty had a rocky start, but what’s the root cause? As per ESPN Analytics, the team had a 99.2% win probability after they managed an 81-66 lead with 5 minutes 20 seconds to go. So there must be something that went horribly wrong with NY Liberty that Napheesa Collier & Co. secured a win despite trailing by 15 points at this stage. Answering the same during the post-game press conference was Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello.

Brondello stated she would have a more detailed answer later, but she still had some points on the top of her mind. “We weren’t moving it good enough. We couldn’t get downhill as much. You know, we missed a lot of shots… So just the principles of play for us,” she said during the press meet. Further adding to it, the Liberty head coach pointed out the Lynx employed a better defense than her team. And some timely big shots turned the tables completely around.

Well, at least the team knows where they lacked, though there is no justification to be the first team in WNBA postseason history to lose a game after having a 15-point lead in the final five minutes of the game. However, this is not the first time that the NY Liberty stars have choked in the Finals. Facing the Las Vegas Aces in last year’s Finals, Sabrina Ionescu shot just 32% from the field. Meanwhile, Breanna Stewart shot just 36%.

But the fan expectations were the two stars wouldn’t perform this terribly against Napheesa Collier & Co. this year. Well, they did not. If anything, they did worse. While Ionescu shot 8-for-26 against Lynx, Stewart could manage just 6-for-21. However, it’s not as if the rest of the team performed any wonders in the shooting department. The only exception to this situation is Jonquel Jones, who sunk in 9 of her 14 field goal attempts. The rest of the team attempted 76 shots and made just 25 of them.

What was it that Napheesa Collier & Co. did right during Game 1 of the Finals?

The Minnesota Lynx was everything in Game 1 that the NY Liberty wasn’t. Yes, Collier didn’t light up the scoreboard in the first quarter—just 4 points and a lone defensive rebound. But if you looked closely, you saw her doing the little things that don’t show up on the stat sheet. She hustled, made key defensive stops, and never seemed rattled.

All of this reflected with Lynx’s defense being superior—8 steals and 9 blocks as compared to the Liberty’s 5 steals and 4 blocks. It was clear that Minnesota had a plan—disrupt New York’s flow and make every possession a challenge. When the Lynx fell behind, they didn’t panic. Instead, as Collier put it, they focused on “getting three stops in a row, chipping at it a little bit at a time.”

And when the dust settled, Collier, Kayla McBride, and Aerial Powers had quietly piled up 21, 22, and 23 points each. Head coach Cheryl Reeve summed it up perfectly — “You have to be mentally tough, resilient. We were that team.” Now it’s to be seen if the NY Liberty can bounce back from this setback in Game 2.

Stay tuned for more updates. Join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host, BG12, sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.