The No. 1 seed Minnesota Lynx were eliminated from the 2026 WNBA playoffs in stunning fashion Tuesday with an 87-71 loss to the No. 8 seed New York Liberty, who completed a two-game sweep in what was a rematch of the 2024 Finals. The Lynx are the first No. 1 seed to lose a first-round series to a No. 8 seed.
Despite Game 1 at home on Sunday, and needing a response to keep their season alive, the Lynx immediately fell behind 9-1 on Tuesday and were down double digits within five minutes. Though they worked their way back into the game at times, they never led in what became an emphatic Liberty win.
There were few performances to write home about for the Lynx, who shot 38.2% from the field as a team. Courtney Williams led the way with 18 points, but needed 17 shots to get there, while Napheesa Collier needed 14 shots for her 14 points. Unanimous Rookie of the Year Olivia Miles, meanwhile, scored just five points on 1 of 8 from the field, and was benched in the middle of the third quarter after committing an (unintentional) flagrant foul on Breanna Stewart.
The Lynx finished the regular season 33-11 to claim the No. 1 seed for the second season in a row, and despite stumbling down the stretch, were the favorites to win the title heading into the playoffs. Once again, however, they will head home early.
“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.”
The Liberty’s Big Three showed up in a major way to ensure this series didn’t return to Minnesota. Jonquel Jones had 21 points and 13 rebounds; Breanna Stewart had 21 points, five rebounds and four assists and Sabrina Ionescu added 18 points and seven assists.
New York will now play the Atlanta Dream or Washington Mystics. The Dream are up 1-0 in that series, with Game 2 set for Wednesday night in Washington, D.C. As the Liberty wait to see who they’ll face next, let’s take a closer look at why the Lynx crashed out in the first round.
A pair of foreboding quotes
Very few saw this Lynx crash-out coming. But there were signs. In the final week of the regular season, veteran guard Kayla McBride, who doesn’t normally make headlines, gave an eye-opening quote.
“I want to see the ‘F you’ about us,” McBride said. “And I mean that wholeheartedly. Like, I don’t care about the outcomes, I don’t think, at this point. I’m more concerned about our ‘F you’ towards the other team. Just going and ripping people’s hearts out and taking momentum back and finishing games and putting hammers down.”
The sentiment was understandable, but it was concerning — even more so, in retrospect — that McBride felt it was necessary to say that publicly. The Lynx were the best team in the league for the majority of the season, but finished the regular season on a 2-4 skid and backed into the No. 1 seed.
Even ahead of Game 2, there didn’t seem to be a sense of urgency from the Lynx.
“I’m already in the Hall of Fame. I feel no pressure,” Cheryl Reeve, who was named Coach of the Year for a record-setting fifth time earlier this week, said before the must-win Game 2. “I’ve run my race, and now I just want to be the best version of myself for the players.”
It is understandable for a coach to want to keep things in perspective, but those are not exactly inspiring words when facing elimination. Especially when you were sent home early last season and were playing a team that had knocked you out of the playoffs two seasons ago,
Liberty weren’t a typical No. 8 seed
This season did not go to plan in Brooklyn. Marquee free agent signing Satou Sabally was limited to 13 games and has been ruled out for the season due to concussion symptoms, while Ionescu and Leonie Fiebich both missed extensive time. Ionescu has rarely looked like her usual self since she returned, and the team also spent all summer adjusting to new coach Chris DeMarco’s system.
There were glimpses of an elite team, but they weren’t visible often enough, and when the Liberty ended the regular season with back-to-back losses to the Atlanta Dream to fall to eighth place, it seemed they would be in for an early exit. And yet, it was impossible to fully write them off.
After all, they were the preseason title favorites for a reason.
The core of the Liberty’s 2024 title team — Stewart, Jones, Ionescu and Leonie Fiebich — is still in place, and they filled out the supporting cast with veterans such as Han Xu, Marine Johannès, Rebecca Allen and Rebekah Gardner, as well as rookie guard Pauline Astier. Even without Sabally, the Liberty have the most talented roster from top to bottom.
And as frustrating as things were at times, they did go 26-18, which was the best winning percentage by a No. 8 seed since the league changed the playoff format in 2016 to include the top eight teams, regardless of conference. In addition, the seven games separating the Lynx and Liberty were the fewest between a No. 1 and No. 8 seed in that span.
Miles looked like a rookie
Olivia Miles, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft, burst onto the scene with a historic rookie season. She broke Caitlin Clark’s record for the most points by a rookie, finished in the top-10 in both scoring and assists, was selected as an All-Star starter, will likely be named to the All-WNBA First Team and won Rookie of the Year in unanimous fashion.
For the majority of the season, Miles did not look like a rookie. She did against the Liberty.
Miles struggled with this matchup during the regular season. In three games versus New York, she averaged 19 points, six rebounds and 4.7 assists, but shot 16 of 50 (32%) from the field, including 4 of 14 (28.6%) from 3-point range. The 32% she shot against the Liberty was her worst split against any single opponent.
She was still searching for answers against the Liberty’s length and physicality when she was benched for good in the middle of the third quarter of Game 2 after whacking Stewart in the face and receiving a Flagrant 1 foul.
Miles finished with five points on 1 of 8 shooting with just one assist. In Game 1, she had 11 points on 3 of 12 shooting, and again just one assist. For the series, she scored 16 points on 20 shots, dished out just two assists and turned the ball over five times. It was, in short, a disastrous playoff debut.
Notably, the Liberty were able to completely take away Miles’ rim attack. During the regular season, Miles’ 319 attempts at the rim were the most by any guard, and she shot 56.7%. Her ability to get downhill and collapse the defense was a major reason both she and the Lynx were so successful this season.
In the first round against the Liberty, Miles was just 1 of 7 (14.3%) at the rim in total — a staggering drop in both volume and efficiency from the regular season. On a per-game basis, her attempts at the rim were more than cut in half from the regular season, and her rim field goal percentage fell more than 40%.
|
Regular Season |
8 |
56.7% |
|
First Round |
3.5 |
14.3% |
When Miles was able to get into the paint, someone was always waiting for her — often Jones. Watch for yourself:
“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.”
Lynx go home early again
No team has won more regular-season games over the last three seasons than the Lynx, who are 97-31 since 2024. Due in large part to the extended regular seasons, they are the first team ever to win at least 30 games in three consecutive seasons. But they’ve won just three playoff series in that time, and are now the first No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 8 seed in WNBA history.
Here are the Lynx’s results since 2024:
- 2024: Lost in Finals to Liberty
- 2025: Lost in semifinals to Mercury
- 2026: Lost in first round to Liberty
The Lynx were arguably robbed by the officials in the 2024 Finals, and lost Collier to a gruesome injury in the semifinals last season. There were no excuses this time around.
The Lynx lost both games by 16 points, and their minus-32 margin for the series was the worst ever by a No. 1 seed in a best-of-three series, per Her Hoops Stats. If that doesn’t inspire some serious soul-searching in Minnesota, what will?
