Breanna Stewart leads Liberty past top-seeded Lynx

The New York Liberty beat the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx Women 91-75 on Sunday to take Game 1 of their best-of-three first-round series.

Stewart, the two-time league MVP, added six assists, two steals and two blocks, shooting 11 for 18 from the floor with Napheesa Collier — her friend and former college teammate — guarding her for most of the afternoon. The tally left her two short of the Liberty's own franchise record for points in a playoff game, and it stands as the second-highest postseason scoring average by any player in league history.

Collier, the 2024 defensive player of the year, fouled out, as did All-Star centre Natasha Howard. Olivia Miles, the Lynx rookie who broke Caitlin Clark's rookie scoring record earlier this month, had a quiet postseason debut: 11 points on 3-for-12 shooting and a single assist. Nia Brodie led Minnesota off the bench with 16 points in 19 minutes, and Kayla McBride finished with 14 after missing her first five 3-point attempts.

Minnesota, playing at Target Center, finished the regular season 26-18 and had claimed the No 1 seed despite a blowout defeat to Indiana on Miles' calf concerns. That record made the Lynx the toughest opponent the league's best regular-season side could draw, and just two years removed from their five-game final defeat to this same Liberty side in the 2024 championship.

New York host Game 2 on Tuesday with a chance to close out the series. The Lynx must win to force a decider back at Target Center on Thursday. Stewart, who recently helped the United States win a fifth straight World Cup, has now put the Liberty a game from a first-round exit a year after they themselves were eliminated in the first round by the Phoenix Mercury — the side that went on to knock out the top-seeded Lynx before losing the title to the Las Vegas Aces.

A repeat first-round exit for Minnesota, after topping the table all season, would mark the second straight year the No 1 seed has fallen at the opening hurdle.