By: Scott Mammosser
A sellout crowd of 19,423 in green T-shirts was prepared to celebrate a record-tying fourth WNBA championship Thursday at the Minneapolis Target Center, but after one of the league’s all-time greatest games, the Lynx fell one point short, 77-76 to the Los Angeles Sparks.
In the midst of Minnesota holding Nneka Ogwumike without a shot in the first quarter and the league MVP picking up a third foul early on, it almost seemed destined that a fourth banner would be raised to the rafters. Ogwumike, Kristi Toliver and Essence Carson continued playing with dangerously-high amounts of fouls, but they kept making shots. Toliver nailed a three falling down with the shot clock expiring with 3:30 remaining. Just when Los Angeles looked in control, five consecutive from Maya Moore brought the Lynx within 71-69 at 1:53, and a Lindsay Whalen steal and layup over Candace Parker tied it at 71-71.
With 1:14 on the clock came the play that will haunt Minnesota throughout its already frigid winters. A shot clock violation from Ogwumike was counted, and in an address from the league Friday, Chief of Basketball Operations and Player Relations Renee Brown confirmed the shot should have been waived, which would have been the difference in the game. Brown, who is stepping down now that the season is over after 20 years and has been as instrumental as anyone to the growth of this sport, probably was not hoping a miscue of that magnitude would be her final act. Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve was extremely disappointed in the officiating following the loss.
“It’s really unfortunate that players continually put themselves out there, playing and competing at a really high level,” Reeve said. “It’s not fair to the players. These players are so invested, and something must be done about the officiating in this league because it is not fair to these great players we have.”
Ogwumike executed the final basket, as well, grabbing and putting back her own rebound with three seconds remaining, echoing the last-second three pointer from Alana Beard in Game One as classic moments in a treasure of a series.
Seimone Augustus, the MVP of the Lynx’s first title run in 2011 and its longest-tenured player since being taken No. 1 overall in 2006, scored 17 points Thursday.
“You think about the different playoff format implemented this year,” Augustus said, “and you couldn’t have a better series with the two top teams in the regular season competing against each other going through a five-game series at the highest level. We always talk about great players making great plays. Throughout the five games, you saw people rise to the occasion. Any given night, there was any given player that could be the most important piece at that time. This was what we needed, and I hope that we gained a lot of fans from around the world, around the country, and they really recognize how well women’s basketball is being played here in the USA.”
Up until now, each Olympic year, one player from the gold-medal winning U.S. team went on to win the WNBA championship: Sheryl Swoopes (2000), Sue Bird (2004), Katie Smith (2008), and Tamika Catchings (2012). The greatest single collection of any team, the quartet of Augustus, Moore, Whalen, and Sylvia Fowles would have equaled the previous total, but instead a Sparks team with none lifted the trophy. Note that, even though she didn’t get in the game, Sparks guard Ana Dabovic won the bronze for Serbia as its third-leading scorer in Rio, joining Janeth Arcain and Lauren Jackson as international players to win a medal and WNBA title in the same season. The question now is, how much longer can Coach Reeve keep this Lynx team playing at this level? Rebekkah Brunson, who still clashes the boards with the same intensity as she did 10 years ago and whose greatness often gets overlooked, will turn 35 in December. Jia Perkins and Whalen are 34, Janel McCarville 33, Augustus 32, Fowles 31, and Anna Cruz and Renee Montgomery turn 30 later this fall.
“They said stick a fork in it last year, and all we did was get back to the Finals and have the best record in the league,” Reeve said. “Maybe (the media) should start writing how we’re old and washed up and maybe it motivates them.”
With as competitive as these Minnesota players are, the sting of a one-point loss in the decisive game of the Finals should be the medicine for another run next October.
(*Scott Mammoser covers international and women’s sports, he has attended five Olympics and covered world championships for FIBA and the IAAF.*)
