History books will remember October 10 for reasons more than one. When the underdog-looking Minnesota Lynx overcame an 18-point deficit to script a legendary comeback against the NY Liberty (95-93) in overtime, it wasn’t just the largest comeback in WNBA Finals history. The game also recorded the highest viewership number in 21 years—1.14 million viewers on average on ESPN, with the last record being set back in 1998 with 1.07 million viewers (Mercury vs Comets game, which the latter won 74-69 in overtime). Moreover, the clash also witnessed a 57% improvement on Game 1 from the 2023 finals.

While the decibel levels of the roaring crowd at the Barclays Center kept dropping, the number of remotely tuned-in fans kept rising. However, WNBA icon Sheryl Swoopes has her reservations, it seems. On the Queens of the Court: A WNBA Podcast (Bonus Episode: This Is What The Finals Are All About) aired hours after the game concluded, Sheryl Swoopes couldn’t contain her excitement about how good the game was. “I never record the game unless I’m travelling. But if I’m at home, I’m not recording because I’m gonna watch it anyway. I’m so happy my husband was doing something, so he was like, ‘Don’t tell me about the game, I want to watch it.’ So he recorded it. And, I’m so gonna go back and watch it today. That game was so….damn good!…This is what finals is about,” she said enthusiastically. 

However, there was still one aspect the game couldn’t catch up to, as per the retired veteran. When her co-host Jordan Robinson began describing it as: “This was the best finals game, NBA or WNBA, in the last 5 years,” Swoopes interrupted her saying, “No…no…no ma’am…no ma’am. Don’t say that…”

But as soon as she heard Robinson’s last three words, her tone changed. “Okay, 5 years. I thought you were gonna say ever. Me and you were gonna go at it if you would’ve said ever,” she humorously added. “It was close, though. It was good,” was her conclusion. “Whoo!”

But on Thursday night, though the game’s viewership didn’t even reach the halfway mark of the Indiana Fever v/s Connecticut Sun’s first-round Game 2, which averaged 2.5 million courtesy of the Caitlin Clark effect, standout performers were everywhere. The Lynx were trailing their opponent 32-19 at the end of the first quarter…

From Courtney Williams’ four-point play with 5.1 seconds left in the fourth quarter to Napheesa Collier’s clutch 3 with 8.1 seconds left in overtime, Lynx turned into a diamond under pressure. And as expected, Collier was in disbelief after the match concluded. “I have literally never been a part of something so crazy in sports ever before. It was wild, just the back and forth, the roller coaster. Just going from down 20 in the beginning to down 15 with five minutes left, that’s a lot of points,” she stated.

On the contrary, New York’s lack of intent to sustain their lead cost them big. As per Swoopes, that is where New York lost the game.

Sheryl Swoopes harshly judges Sabrina Ionescu & the Liberty

The Liberty had a 99.2% win rate when only 5 minutes were remaining in the fourth quarter. It came on the back of Jonquel Jones’ double-double with a game-high 24 points and 10 rebounds. She also shot an impressive 64.3% from the field with Minnesota’s famed defense rendered clueless. Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart, and Leonie Fiebich joined the party with 19, 18, and 17 points, respectively. But it was mid-game that a subpar mentality cost them.

“When Holly (Rowe) interviewed Sabrina, Sabrina said, ‘We knew they were gonna come back’. I have a problem with that answer because it’s the finals, you’re at home, you have them down by 15,” Swoopes told Robinson. “No ma’am. You don’t say we knew they were going to come back. You need to be saying, ‘We’re not going to let them come back.'”

But Stewart is more ready than ever. “I had a great look at the end and I didn’t make it…But this is a series. We wanted to really win, obviously, for home court. But the beauty is, we have another game on Sunday, and we’ll be ready,” she said in a post-match conversation.

Carrying the burden of an embarrassing loss, the Liberty fortuitously has a home advantage in Game 2. In addition to the mental aspect, they need to drastically improve their field goal percentage. That was their key weakness in Game 1, with only three players shooting over 40%. Stewart and Laney-Hamilton scored at a paltry 28.6% rate, while Ionescu was only slightly better at 30.6%. On the Lynx side, five players scored with over 50% accuracy. The least that New York can do is to improve their judgment on shot possibilities if not accuracy.