Liberty roll over Lynx again to complete historic WNBA playoff upset, reach semifinals

After dominating the league throughout the regular season, the Minnesota Lynx are done. The New York Liberty picked up a second straight runaway win over the Lynx, this time a 87-71 victory at the Barclays Center on Tuesday night, to officially close out their opening-round playoff series. That knocked the top seed out of the postseason and made the Liberty the first No. 8 seed to upset a No. 1 seed in WNBA playoff history. The current playoff format, with all eight teams playing in the opening round, was only adopted in 2022. But the Liberty were the first No. 8 seed to even win a game in the opening round of the playoffs, and no No. 8 team has ever won an opening-round series, even before they were going up against the top seed.The Lynx entered the postseason as the top seed with both Rookie of the Year Olivia Miles and Coach of the Year Cheryl Reeve on their side. They went 33-10 on the season, and seemed poised to go on a meaningful playoff run. But the Liberty went into the Target Center on Sunday with other plans. Breanna Stewart dropped 34 points in that contest to lead them to a convincing 16-point road win. Tuesday night was no different. The Liberty led from the jump at home, and opened the contest on a 15-5 run before taking a 14-point lead at halftime. Though the Lynx responded briefly in the third quarter — they went on a brief 10-2 run to cut the deficit to single digits — Sabrina Ionescu drilled a huge 3-pointer just before the end of the period to give them control.JUST BEFORE THE 3RD ENDED.Sabrina Ionescu. That's it. That's the tweet. 😮‍💨16 PTS | 5 AST | 4 REB | 4 3PM pic.twitter.com/AL0H2yV7S7— WNBA (@WNBA) September 30, 2026 The Liberty answered every time, and ended up cruising the rest of the way to the 16-point win. The Lynx, unlike how they looked throughout the regular season, were no match. Minnesota led for only three minutes, 23 seconds over the two games in this series.Courtney Williams led the Lynx with 18 points and seven rebounds in the loss. Both Napheesa Collier and Kayla McBride added 14 points each. Jonquel Jones led the Liberty with 21 points, 14 of which came in the first half, and 13 rebounds in the win. Stewart had 21 points, and Ionescu added 18 points and seven assists.The Liberty now advance to the semifinals. They'll take on either the Atlanta Dream or Washington Mystics in the next round in a best-of-five series. If they can pull off a series win there, they'll earn a third trip to the WNBA Finals in the past four seasons. The Lynx, though, are headed home. After the season they had, this early playoff exit can't be seen as anything other than disappointing.