It took an incredibly ugly win to get the New York Liberty to the most beautiful place in franchise history.
This Game 5 of the WNBA Finals was not exactly a grand title coronation from childhood blacktop dreams. That is not to suggest it was boring: If anything, it was frighteningly the opposite, full of drama until the end. It was the first time that a WNBA winner-take-all championship game required overtime. But none of it came easy. The Liberty fought their way back from a double-digit deficit against the Minnesota Lynx. Even with the benefit of extra time, New York scored fewer points than it had in any victory this season, ultimately winning 67–62. The Liberty came very close to being the first team ever to win a Game 5 without a single three-pointer. (They finished 2-for-23 from beyond the arc: It was the worst distance shooting performance of the year for the team that made the most threes in the league.) There were missed free throws and bad looks and many dubious foul calls. But none of it mattered in the end.
