Lynx one loss from exit after Liberty win WNBA playoff Game 1
Minnesota Lynx took the No 1 seed, but Breanna Stewart's 34 points gave New York a 91-75 Game 1 win and left the favourites one loss from going out.
The Guardian's playoff preview treats the Minnesota Lynx Women as the team to beat, and asks whether the Las Vegas Aces, or anyone else, can stop them. The Lynx are the No 1 seed.
The piece opens on the league rather than the bracket. The 30th WNBA season is ending as commissioner Cathy Engelbert prepares to leave. She announced earlier this month that she will step down at the end of the year, after seven years in the job.
The Guardian's writers describe the season as one of two halves. They cite record growth, two new teams, and what they call perhaps the deepest basketball the league has produced. On the other side they put refereeing controversies and a months-long row over transgender eligibility. The row was hypothetical, they note, since no trans woman has ever been on a WNBA roster. One writer says A'ja Wilson's season was overlooked amid the noise.
Asked which absent team they will miss most in the playoffs, one of the panel picked the Toronto Tempo.
The bracket has already tested the Lynx. Minnesota locked up the top seed on 23 September despite a 96-77 loss to the Indiana Fever, and Olivia Miles' calf was a concern going in. In Game 1, Breanna Stewart scored 34 points as the New York Liberty won 91-75. The Lynx are now one loss from a first-round exit.
If the Liberty close it out, the question the preview asked about the favourites may already have an answer, and the No 1 seed will have gone out at the first hurdle.
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