Lynx 26-18 Liberty, 5:38 left, 2nd quarter: Ionescu misses a hard layup. She is 0-for-6. Shocking from the player who was essentially Caitlin Clark's predecessor in college.

Liberty gets a steal and a fastbreak, and Heideman blocks Fiebich's layup attempt.

Time out New York.

Lynx 26-18 Liberty, 6:52 left, 2nd quarter: Leonie Fiebich draws a foul and hits both of her throws. She and Jones had 12 of the Liberty's 18 points.

Smith throws an airball from 3-point range.

Lynx 26-16 Liberty, 7:23 left, 2nd quarter: Jones gets a layup for the Liberty. She has 6 points.

McBride hits a long 2.

Breanna Stewart scores! A difficult jumper on the track. Will this set her on the right path? (Note to sports commentators: It's “on track.” Not “untracked,” which is one bad Thing.)

Defensive stop for New York, and Fiebich scores with a nice performance. The German international has made a strong contribution in this series.

Collier scores. Stewart doesn't.

McBride hits an impossible runner.

End of 1st quarter: Lynx 19-10 Liberty

Lynx 19-10 Liberty, 43.8 seconds left, 1st quarter: Ionescu misses terribly.

Alanna Smith, who struggled with back pain in Game 4, hits a nice 3.

Fiebich misses, but Williams misses again.

The bench contributes for Minnesota – Natasha Heideman with a nice drive.

Laney-Hamilton misses for New York – she rushed that.

McBride hands the play to the charging Collier for a layup, and New York will call a timeout.

Lynx 12-10 Liberty, 2:24 left, 1st quarter: McBride hits a soft jumper for a long two.

Stewart fails to connect with a hook shot, but Thornton gets the putback.

Lynx misses the ball and Sabally (who just came in) comes in and scores for New York.

It's another terrible start for the Liberty, especially for its two megastars. Breanna Stewart looks tense and took two shots that came up short. Sabrina Ionescu didn't come close on any of her three shots.

At the other end, Courtney Williams is now 1:5. Still, a sweet pass to Collier, who opened the scoring.

Collier leads all scorers with six points.

Lynx 10-6 Liberty, 3:57 left, 1st quarter: Once again it's Jonquel Jones who picks up where Stewart and Ionescu lag behind. A strong drive brings the Liberty to four.

Williams misses a corner 3. Her shot selection has been questionable so far.

Ionescu has an open 3. It's an airball.

Finally an official break.

Lynx 10-4 Liberty, 4:46 left, 1st quarter: After a brutal series of misses on both ends, Williams gets a rebound and hits a jumper from very close range.

Jones puts the Liberty on the board with a nice post move.

Collier gets her third basket.

Fiebich comes in for the Liberty. Smith then collides with her defender at the top of the arc and ends up with a clear lane for a layup.

Jones gets a share of Williams' shot.

Lynx 4-0 Liberty, 7:06 left, 1st quarter: Williams opens the ball with a beautiful bounce pass to Collier. What a streak the Lynx point guard is having.

The Liberty respond with a terrible series of pointless passes, resulting in an off-balance 3-point attempt by Ionescu.

Williams gets the ball to the ball, but then the Liberty fail to take advantage as Stewart's shot barely draws any iron.

Collier gets her second hit, this time on a feed from McBride.

The next 90 seconds are not memorable.

Lynx 0-0 Liberty, 10:00 left, 1st quarter: Finally it starts.

Tipoff hasn't actually happened yet. We were deceived.

New York's title drought

Coming soon to ESPN…

Spike Lee.

The WNBA has arrived.

Clue in 31 minutes and 45 seconds – approximately 8:06 p.m. Eastern Time.

It all depends…

Beau will be here shortly. Meanwhile, Game 4 went like this:

Bridget Carleton made two free throws with two seconds left and the Minnesota Lynx forced a decisive Game 5 of the WNBA Finals by defeating the New York Liberty 82-80 on Friday night.

The teams meet Sunday night in New York in the first Game 5 of the finals since 2019, when Washington defeated Connecticut.

“The last 40 minutes of the season could be anywhere, we're going to go to war out there and I'm excited,” said Kayla McBride, who led the Lynx with 19 points.

Courtney Williams added 15 points for Minnesota, forcing Liberty stars Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu to have poor shooting nights. Ionescu's shot at the buzzer missed the rim.