Coach of the Year candidate Sandy Brondello is ready for a challenge. The New York Liberty look poised to win their first Championship after losing to the Las Vegas Aces last year. And while the star-studded squad speaks for itself, Brondello’s seamless mixing of the talent cannot be ignored. But rather than face the Las Vegas team again this year, the Head Coach is eyeing a familiar foe — the Minnesota Lynx — coached by the Coach of the Year frontrunner.

The Lynx lead the score vs. the Liberty this season with 2 wins over Minnesota’s solitary victory. But not only is New York looking to equal the score in their Sunday meeting, Brondello wants to face the 4x champions in the Finals as well. She revealed in a postgame interview, “I’m happy with the way we’ve done the last two games now. Minnesota is a great test for us so we’re excited about that. Because if we take care of what we need to do and maybe it’s an opponent, we will see in the Finals.”

Discussing the growth of her team, Brondello said, “I think the last two games really helped us get back to that, still playing in the right way with the balls not sticking, we’re moving it through different hands.”

“Different people are scoring and being aggressive and that’s gonna be critical for us. It’s not that we just have to take one person out, I think we’ve got a lot of depth there that we can play in so many different ways,” Brondello continued. The way the Liberty defeated the Dallas Wings 105-91 and even had a victory over the Aces 75-71, Brondello believes her squad is doing well.

But she still believes Cheryl Reeve’s Lynx can be the ultimate challenger. The Minnesota team ties with the Seattle Storm and now-defunct Houston Comets for a total of four Championships. While they all came under Reeve’s coaching, they were all also won in the last decade. It’s not the Lynx’s heyday anymore. But Minnesota has blown expectations as well.

As Sandy Brondello put it, “In the playoffs it’s just making sure you’re playing your best basketball.” And it seems one of her team members would agree with her head coach.

Sabrina Ionescu echoes HC Sandy Brondello for Minnesota Lynx wish

After the Liberty defeated the Wings 99-67, Sabrina Ionescu also sat down for a post-game interview. Discussing the next team they face, aka the Minnesota Lynx, who is also on a four-game winning streak, the 2023 three-point shooting champion seemed ready for the next challenge.

“It’s gonna be a statement game,” the All-Star guard said. “It’s the two top teams playing each other, and we have to come out and play our best basketball and do that for 40 minutes.” But echoing what her coach had said just before her, Ionescu also expressed a similar wish to meet Minnesota in the Finals.

“We gotta make sure we put our best foot forward,” Ionescu added. “I feel like we’ve been playing our best basketball as of late, in terms of just finding ways to win whether it’s pretty or ugly.”

Whether or not New York can match the score with Minnesota, only Sunday will tell. But the Liberty will be looking to set the tone of the playoffs if these two teams end up facing other other in the last stretch again!