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.
Basketball team
Club · United States · NBA Women
«The Dream»
Angel McCoughtry spent eleven seasons carrying Atlanta on her back, and she is still the franchise's all-time leading scorer for the stretch she played, 2009 to 2019. It was under her that the Dream turned an expansion side into a fixture of the WNBA Finals, reaching the championship series three years running — 2010, 2011 and 2013 — and losing each time, first to the Seattle Storm, then twice to the Minnesota Lynx. No title ever followed, and none of that era's near-misses have been matched since.
The club started from nothing rougher than most: granted a WNBA expansion licence in October 2007, it took the floor for the first time in 2008 and promptly lost seventeen straight games, a start bad enough that the McCoughtry-led rise which came after felt like a genuine turnaround rather than a formality.
Off the court, the franchise went through its own reckoning in 2021, when then co-owner Kelly Loeffler's involvement became untenable and the team changed hands. Renee Montgomery, who had played for the Dream, joined the new ownership group — a rebuild that put a former player in the room where the decisions get made, not just a name change on the letterhead.
These days the roster is built around Rhyne Howard, the 2022 Rookie of the Year, and the games that matter most are against the Indiana Fever, a rivalry that has sharpened considerably in the past few seasons. Home games are played in front of 3,500 at Gateway Center Arena in College Park, a small enough house that the building fills with noise long before it fills with people. Atlanta is still chasing the banner McCoughtry's teams came closest to winning.
| 10 Oct | NBA Women |
|
85:83 | W |
| 8 Oct | NBA Women |
|
101:98 | W |
| 4 Oct | NBA Women |
|
92:82 | W |
| 1 Oct | NBA Women |
|
93:75 | W |
| 28 Sep | NBA Women |
|
92:77 | W |
| 24 Sep | NBA Women |
|
83:65 | W |
Group stage · NBA Women - Eastern Conference
| # | Team | M | W | L | Goals | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
44 | 30 | 14 | 4019:3717 | 0 |
| 2 |
|
44 | 28 | 16 | 3696:3640 | 0 |
| 3 |
|
44 | 28 | 16 | 4222:3979 | 0 |
| 4 |
|
44 | 26 | 18 | 3941:3802 | 0 |
| 5 |
|
44 | 16 | 28 | 3818:3989 | 0 |
| 6 |
|
44 | 11 | 33 | 3770:4152 | 0 |
| 7 |
|
44 | 11 | 33 | 3470:3875 | 0 |
| Metric | Total | Home | Away |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matches | 263 | 130 | 133 |
| Scored | 21625 | 10781 | 10844 |
| Conceded | 21539 | 10642 | 10897 |
| Average per match | 82.2 | 82.9 | 81.5 |
| Conceded per game | 81.9 | 81.9 | 81.9 |
| Difference | +86 | +139 | −53 |
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.