The New York Liberty beat the Minnesota Lynx 87-71 on Tuesday night, Sept. 29, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, sweeping the best-of-three first round. The Associated Press reported that New York “became the first No. 8 seed to eliminate a No. 1 seed in the league’s 30-year history.”
Why the record only goes back to 2016
The WNBA has seeded all eight playoff teams from 1 through 8 only since 2016. Before that, according to Wikipedia’s playoff history, seeds never ran as high as No. 8. AP wrote that “in many of the formats, it wasn’t possible for those seeds to match up,” and that the league adopted its current format in 2022. From 2016 through 2021 the top two seeds had byes to the semifinals, so a No. 1 and a No. 8 could meet only there; since 2022 they meet in the first round.
Plainly Now reviewed Wikipedia’s season-by-season WNBA playoff pages from 2016 through 2025 and found five earlier meetings between a No. 1 and a No. 8 seed. The No. 1 seed won every one:
- 2016 semifinals: Minnesota over Phoenix.
- 2022 first round: Las Vegas over Phoenix, 2-0.
- 2023 first round: Las Vegas over Chicago, 2-0.
- 2024 first round: New York over Atlanta.
- 2025 first round: Minnesota over Golden State, 2-0.
From 2017 through 2021, the No. 8 seed lost its opening single-elimination game every year.
That review is consistent with AP’s “first.” Three of those five wins belonged to the teams in this series: Minnesota won as the top seed in 2016 and 2025, and New York did so in 2024.
How the two games were won
New York won Game 1 91-75 on Sunday, Sept. 27, in Minneapolis.
Game 1 belonged to Breanna Stewart, who scored 34 points on 11 of 18 shooting, made 10 of 12 free throws and grabbed 12 rebounds.
In Game 2, Jonquel Jones scored 21 points on 9 of 14 shooting with 13 rebounds. Stewart also scored 21. Sabrina Ionescu added 18 points. The Liberty led 49-37 at halftime. After New York went up 52-39 in the third quarter, AP noted, Minnesota “couldn’t get closer than seven points the rest of the way.”
Minnesota’s leaders were Courtney Williams with 18 points, and Napheesa Collier and Kayla McBride with 14 apiece. Rookie Olivia Miles scored five points on 1 of 8 shooting.
The gap in the standings
Minnesota finished 33-11 in the regular season. New York finished 26-18, seven games behind, and entered the playoffs on a two-game losing streak, according to the official WNBA standings. AP noted that a year ago New York lost in the first round to Phoenix after going up 1-0 in that series.
What players and coaches said
“It feels good to make history,” Jones said. “It had to be done for us to advance. It’s nice to say it’s been accomplished, but we have a lot of work to do.”
“New York is a great basketball team,” Williams said. “You dig a hole for yourself and try to get out of it. We wanted to go on a run, but they had answers for everything.”
Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, who won the league’s Coach of the Year award on Monday, spoke about Miles, the unanimous Rookie of the Year. “As I told her. When was the last time a rookie led the first place team? Never happened before,” Reeve said. “That’s what we shared with her. This hurts for her.”
What comes next
New York advances to the best-of-five semifinals, which begin Oct. 4 according to the WNBA’s bracket. Its opponent will be the winner of the No. 4 Atlanta and No. 5 Washington series. Atlanta leads that series 1-0, and Game 2 is Wednesday night in Washington.