Cheryl Reeve draws closer to WNBA history after an epic Game 1 win Finals win

The South Jersey native could become the first coach to win WNBA and Olympic titles in the same year.

South Jersey-born and La Salle-bred Cheryl Reeve on the Minnesota Lynx sideline during Thursday's Game 1 of the WNBA Finals.Read morePamela Smith / AP

Published Oct. 11, 2024, 11:02 a.m. ET

NEW YORK — Cheryl Reeve understandably hasn’t had much time to think about the bigger picture of her Minnesota Lynx team’s playoff run this year.

Her team tipped off the WNBA Finals two days after finishing a hard-fought semifinal win over the Connecticut Sun that went the maximum five games. So only on Thursday morning could the South Jersey native allow herself a moment.

“We’re so task-oriented, but I had to stop myself for a second as I was walking in to go meet the staff,” she said a few hours later. “And I was like, ‘We’re preparing for a Game 1 of the WNBA Finals.‘”

Yes, here Reeve is, back in the Finals seven years after a dynastic four titles from 2011-17. If the No. 2 seed Lynx can topple the No. 1 New York Liberty this time, Reeve will become the first coach in league history with five championships, and the first coach to lead WNBA and U.S. Olympic teams to titles in the same year.

Now she’s just two wins away from history. Minnesota won Thursday’s Game 1 in epic fashion, rallying from 18 points down and surviving a roller-coaster ending to prevail 95-93 in overtime.

Players value Reeve’s high standards

“It’s not lost on me, in terms of the year,” Reeve said. “Every once in a while, I’m putting one foot in front of the other, and kind of going, ‘This has been a lot, in the best of ways.’ I just haven’t had time to really let it all sink in.”

She politely said “I don’t care about me,” preferring to put the spotlight on players who form the underdog against star-studded New York.

But Reeve’s players know how important she is, especially star forward Napheesa Collier. Two months after being one of Reeve’s Olympic stalwarts, she won the WNBA’s Defensive Player of the Year over MVP A’ja Wilson.

“I think she just has such a unique ability to bring the very best out of players, because the expectations that she has are so high, and that’s what I really appreciate out of coaches,” Collier said. “She holds us to a standard that creates championship teams, which is why they’ve been so successful here, why she’s been so successful. … I can’t say enough about the preparation that she does, and the way that she does X’s and O’s.”

Minnesota needed every bit of that magic in Game 1. New York led 32-19 after the first quarter, made 12 of its first 28 three-pointers, and led the game until the final seconds of regulation — and still could have won it had Breanna Stewart not missed a free throw with 0.8 on the clock.

It takes something special to build the intangibles for a win like that, especially against the Liberty’s superstar trio of Stewart, Jonquel Jones, and Sabrina Ionescu. But this Lynx squad quite clearly has it.

‘It defines our team’

No matter that deficit, or those free throws, or Jones’ game-high 24 points and 10 rebounds. Collier showed the nation why she beat A’ja Wilson to the defensive award, with six blocks and three steals to go with her 21 points and eight rebounds.

Kayla McBride also scored 22, and Courtney Williams had 23 — including a three-pointer-and-one with 5.5 seconds left in the 4th that stunned the deafening crowd of 17,732.

“I think it defines our team, in terms of being able to get through difficult times,” Reeve said afterward. “You have to be mentally tough, resilient. You have to look inward, and not blame other people, and give each other confidence. And we were that team, and I’m thrilled that we could hang in there.”

It was an 18-point comeback overall, tying the largest margin for a comeback in a Finals game since 1999 (when, coincidentally, the Liberty did it). ESPN’s statisticians said it was the first time any WNBA team won a postseason game when trailing by 15 points with five minutes to play, after 183 past attempts.

There are words for such feats, and the crowd of might have chosen some unprintable ones. But clutch and tenacious would make any page.

Stewart’s pledge sets up Game 2

This series looks like it that could go the distance, as Minnesota tries to keep its lead and New York tries to finally win its first WNBA title after nearly three decades. The Liberty really should have won Game 1, and they knew it — no one more than Stewart.

Of all 144 players in the WNBA, there’s scarcely anyone you’d rather give the ball too for a game’s biggest shots. So it was just about shocking when Stewart was denied twice by Collier in the lane in the fourth quarter’s final seconds, drew a foul on the second attempt, hit a tying free throw, then had that miss.

In the last 20 seconds of overtime, Stewart blocked Williams at one end, watched Collier hit an exceptional turnaround jumper for the final basket, then drove out of a timeout to beat the buzzer but missed a layup.

“I want to be taking these shots, and I feel like knowing that my teammates and everyone has confidence in me is important,” Stewart said. “On to the next, and still making sure that I’m going to be aggressive any time I’m on the court. Obviously as a player it’s very frustrating, but bounce back for Game 2.”

Stewart said “we’ll be ready,” and while it wasn’t Mark Messier’s guarantee, it was enough to set the stage. Game 2 is Sunday, a 3 p.m. tip in Brooklyn, and the ABC broadcast will be the only one on free-to-air TV in these Finals.

The scene then shifts to Minneapolis for Games 3 and 4 on Wednesday and Friday (both 8 p.m., ESPN). New York would host a potential Game 5 on Oct. 20 (8 p.m., ESPN).