The Minnesota Lynx remained in control in the final minute of regulation despite the disappearance of a 20-point lead, having built their advantage back up to five after the Phoenix Mercury had tied the game.
The Lynx still led by three points after Satou Sabally's putback for the Mercury, having survived the earlier collapse on their home floor and eyeing a closeout of Game 2 of the semifinal series with their roaring fans anticipating the same.
As it turned out, the top seed in the WNBA playoffs wasn't done unraveling.
Bridget Carleton took the ball to inbound it from the sideline with 46 seconds left in the fourth quarter, but the Mercury had her teammates swarmed. Just as coach Cheryl Reeve screamed for a timeout, the whistle for a 5-second violation was blown. Alyssa Thomas cut the lead to one with a basket in the lane with 25 seconds to go, and the Lynx never fully recovered.
“My timeout was too late. B.C. knows she can always take a timeout,” Reeve said after the 89-83 overtime defeat evened the best-of-five series at one game apiece. "We didn’t get it done.”
In many ways, really.
The Lynx team that went 20-2 at home in the regular season and won its first three games in the playoffs faltered down the stretch in uncharacteristic fashion under the demanding Reeve, whose standard for defense, discipline with the ball and overall tough-mindedness has contributed to four WNBA championships.
Reeve didn't hold back in her criticism of the Lynx.
"We didn't respond. We didn't respond," Reeve said after a crushing defeat. "We certainly talked about at halftime, you know, what this team was feeling and what would be next. Our response to it, very uncharacteristic. Some of the, say, body language in terms of players, that we're not used to seeing. We needed to go get buckets and we had good opportunities and we weren't strong enough. We weren't tough enough. They ripped the game from us."
While the Mercury were on a 12-0 run late in the third quarter that quickly deflated the aforementioned 20-point lead, the Lynx at one point committed four unforced turnovers in a span of 65 seconds.
“Phoenix did a good job at coming out aggressive, but I think we beat ourselves,” star Napheesa Collier said.
Reeve lamented the lack of hustle and tenacity that could’ve overcome the sloppiness and ultimately preserved a victory.
“Just playing our defense and making sure that we don’t have turnovers,” Collier said. “I don’t think our defense was the same in the second half as it was in the first half. We need to get back to taking the easy things away, making their shots hard, and taking care of the ball.”
The Lynx, who were beaten in overtime of the decisive game of the WNBA Finals last year by the New York Liberty, won their last title in 2017. The new Collier-led core flourished ahead of most external expectations last season and picked up where they left off in 2025 by leading the league by a healthy margin for most of the summer and finishing 34-10.
It'll be the Lynx turn to play with the kind of no holds barred aggressiveness that the Mercury had in the second half of Game 2. Collier saw that nothing to lose attitude from Phoenix and knows they'll need to match it.
"I think just their level of aggression," added Collier. "They're down almost 20 so you have to play like that to get back in the game. And that's exactly what they did."
The Lynx now play consecutive games in Phoenix — Game 3 is on Friday and Game 4 is on Sunday — and win at least once to bring their drive for five back to Minnesota.
“It's a resilient team. It’s a team that responds,” Reeve said. “Obviously they don’t feel great right now, but they’re problem-solvers. Nobody said it was going to be easy.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.