Lynx in the finals

[FNG]

I wasn't able to watch game 4, but it was another barn burner...what a series! From reading Reusse's column this morning, it sounds like the refs really let them play until the final whistle on a foul on Carlton they couldn't ignore. Surprised we pulled it out with Collier only scoring 14, but I'm guessing it was her defense on Stewart that won the game for us...5 for 21 shooting. Sunday should be a terrific sports day with the Vikings in the afternoon and the Lynx at night.

Edit: My bad...according to the Strib, Smith was guarding Stewart...gritty performance with her bad knee.

[kekgeek]

I wasn't able to watch game 4, but it was another barn burner...what a series! From reading Reusse's column this morning, it sounds like the refs really let them play until the final whistle on a foul on Carlton they couldn't ignore. Surprised we pulled it out with Collier only scoring 14, but I'm guessing it was her defense on Stewart that won the game for us...5 for 21 shooting. Sunday should be a terrific sports day with the Vikings in the afternoon and the Lynx at night.

Edit: My bad...according to the Strib, Smith was guarding Stewart...gritty performance with her bad knee.

I was at game 4, tickets were super reasonable, it was 25$ for upper deck but it was a legit sell out. Unlike some wolves games I’ve been in the past the crowd was super insightful, people yelled but not dumb Andre angry drunk stuff. The last 5 minutes of the game was the second loudest I’ve ever heard target center (I don’t think G4 against the grizzlies will ever be topped for me.) and I have been to multiple playoff games this last 3 years.

Super super fun game and I’m happy woman’s basketball is getting its shine because it’s been a great product this year and what a WNBA finals.

Lynx in 5, let’s go!

[Coolbreeze44]

This is what would happen in the 80's and 90's of David Stern's NBA. New York with 25 free throws, including ridiculous ones at the end of regulation, the Lynx with 8 all game. We were hosed.

[kekgeek]

This is what would happen in the 80's and 90's of David Stern's NBA. New York with 25 free throws, including ridiculous ones at the end of regulation, the Lynx with 8 all game. We were hosed.

Complete joke of a finish. Some great stats.

25 NY FTs to the Lynx 8
Phee has never not attempted a FT when she gets 11 shot attempts, tonight she shot 23 times and got no FT attempts.
Stewart took 6 steps, and I’m not even exaggerating before getting a touch foul on the last possession.

At the end of the day though Phee missed a layup to end it and McBride missed an open 3 to end regulation.

Feel really bad for the players. Sucks it ended that way.

Also bullshit by ESPN to have Ryen Rucco (who I like) a NY born commentator call the game with arguably the greatest New York Liberty player ever on Rebecca Lobo. The bias was crazy. Before the game in the pre game show they had a commentator do a 5 minute monologue in front of the booth saying you got this Stew and inscoe it’s your time, it’s your moment, go get it. All pro liberty. Such a sad end to a fantastic series with massive improvement in ratings

[Monster]

The Lynx had too many turnovers in OT but I'm still puzzled at how that was a foul on Smith that the Lynx challenged.

Sabally had a really nice game props to her but I'm not sure how many legal screens she set. She was moving early on a lot of them.

Ultimately what sunk the Lynx was point guard play. Williams wasn't good enough and while Hiedeman played well as a backup she wasn't good enough to keep Williams on the bench. The rebound margin was pretty big too.

Overall while not a beautiful game it was fun to watch and highly competitive. I kept thinking early on in the game I thought the Lynx didn't get as big of a lead as it felt like they could have.

[FNG]

Well, I'm not going to let this horribly officiated Game 5 completely ruin this terrific series...but I'm still pissed. As Kek said, Stewart travelled before she was "fouled" in a key moment of this game...we win the game if the refs call this one correctly. But Monster is also correct: our PGs lost this game for us. Kek said earlier in this thread that the Courtney Williams we saw in Game 1 was not the Williams we get every night...and we sure didn't get he tonight. 2 for 14 and more TOs than assists. Carleton also was a no show.

An incredible defensive performance tonight and a great season, but as a guy who very seldom complains about the refs, I agree with our coach...this one was stolen from us.

[kekgeek]

Well, I'm not going to let this horribly officiated Game 5 completely ruin this terrific series...but I'm still pissed. As Kek said, Stewart travelled before she was "fouled" in a key moment of this game...we win the game if the refs call this one correctly. But Monster is also correct: our PGs lost this game for us. Kek said earlier in this thread that the Courtney Williams we saw in Game 1 was not the Williams we get every night...and we sure didn't get he tonight. 2 for 14 and more TOs than assists. Carleton also was a no show.

An incredible defensive performance tonight and a great season, but as a guy who very seldom complains about the refs, I agree with our coach...this one was stolen from us.

I literally can’t stop reading stuff. The WNBA commissioner has a NY City skyline dress on last night and said “this is where the championship belongs” like how dumb is she.

If this happened in the nba this would have been the biggest story on the world for a long time.

Once again 2 things can be true. Lynx could have closed out the game and won it. But the refs also stole the game. When you have nba players like Lebron, Lillard, IT, other WNBA like Dolson, Aukira and former WNBA player Parker saying you got cheated that is a terrible look for the league. Lynx also got screwed over in 2016 again a big market team in LA where a shot clock violation (that was the winning bucket) was not called and the refs determined “to much time came off to go and review the play”

[AbeVigodaLive]

But it's not the NBA.

It's still a league trying to grow (and starting to show some growth). So there aren't many eyeballs on any real or perceived shadiness. Let's say the Lynx won... ok. Cool.

But the NEW YORK liberty won! That's a better selling point.

And even more importantly, A LOT of people (including NBA players) who don't even watch the WNBA are talking about the WNBA today. That's a bigger win for the WNBA.

Any publicity is good publicity. And the WNBA has the NBA as proof. "We've" cried foul (ahem) for years about NBA conspiracies. Yet, the league not only survived it... it prospered. Heck, arguing about bad officiating is a social media goldmine!

Nobody will remember the Lynx were screwed besides a very small minority of fans or passersby. The benefit of this screw-job has much more staying power.

[AbeVigodaLive]

And yes... it was a screwjob.

- The players were bad (in this game).
- The officials were worse and the reviewed foul call at the end was egregious and comically bad.
- The ESPN telecast was the worst of all.

Personally, If I was regular WNBA fan, I'd feel duped, mocked and insulted. They shouldn't have to pander to this degree if the WNBA has legs as a viable and successful sports league. But this is the path that they've taken.

- True conspiracy nut Abe suggests this for next season's plotline... The WNBA leans in on the small market vs. big market thing. They start encouraging it. Imagine the "ratings" with fan favorite Caitlyn Clark leading the small market Indiana Fever vs. the big bad defending champs NEW YORK liberty.

It'll be a David vs. Goliath story for the ages!



[Note: But I digress... the league's overt attempt to whitewash the NEW YORK liberty title makes me suggest that they're not ready for that quite yet. They're still a few steps behind... which is OBVIOUS for anyone who's been watching.]

[Monster]

The Lynx should be getting the calls as the team with the most titles. Instead they still are getting screwed. Reeve certainly is not afraid to speak her mind and in general I think that's good for the league. Again despite all the things the Lynx have put together not just playoff teams but contender and championship level teams.

I saw earlier the commish was wearing the NY skyline dress. That's ridiculous all things considered.

I have zero clue how that challenged call was a foul. It wasn't. I don't know the WNBA and how they call things and how often they overturn calls but that was horrible. It would have been a jump ball so who knows what would have happened and the Lynx got a good look at the other end but yeah.

Abe makes some good points. Even if it wasn't a game where the league or officials stole the Gane from the Lynx there is plenty of talk about the league. To me what's driving the league is more about:

1. The level of play is simply higher and more entertaining and enjoyable to watch than a number of years ago.

2. There are players like Clark who absolutely is driving the eyeballs to watch her.

3. NBA players and other famous people are really digging watching the league. It seems there is a wave of younger folks really invested in it and that's just added to everything.

4. Its seems likely becoming more profitable and so it's going to be easier for people to see games and various people are gonna want to work on getting an even bigger return on their investment. I wish I had money to buy a WNBA franchise a couple years ago I think the value of them is gonna explode.

To me the biggest things are the actual product and a shift in people enjoying and finding value in the game and the players. All the league really needs to do is not screw it up. The game and everything that happened last night (and the series with uneven officiating) thankfully isn't gonna derail the good vibes they have going.