The playoffs are unforgiving. They expose cracks, magnify mistakes, and punish hesitation. When you’re facing the top seed in the league, there’s no room for slippage. On Sunday afternoon, the Phoenix Mercury slipped, and the Minnesota Lynx made sure they paid for it, winning 82–69, in a game that swung not with a single moment, but with the slow, inevitable tide of adjustments.
For a half, the Mercury looked like they belonged. They threw haymakers in the paint, bullied their way to 42 of their 47
first-half points inside, and carried a seven-point lead into the break despite shooting an icy 13% from deep. It was gritty, it was physical, it was the kind of basketball that had Minnesota off balance.
Then the script flipped.
The Lynx turned Phoenix’s strength into weakness, collapsing the lanes, gobbling up rebounds, and flipping the math. The second half was a clinic for Minnesota: 22–12 in the paint, 10 second-chance points, 11–0 in transition. The Mercury’s foundation crumbled, their rhythm dissolved, and what felt like control quickly turned into survival.
Courtney Williams was the dagger. Relentless and precise, she poured in 23 points on 11-of-19 shooting, sprinkled in seven assists, and steered Minnesota to a 1–0 series lead that never felt in doubt once the momentum shifted.
Phoenix, meanwhile, lived on the wrong end of variance, finishing just 3-of-23 from beyond the arc. You can win a half on grit alone, but you can’t win a series shooting like that. Not against the number one seed. Not in the playoffs.
“They really did a good job in the second half, to hold us to 22 points, they turned it up on that end,” Phoenix head coach Nate Tibbets stated after the Game 1 loss. “Obviously, we didn’t shoot it very well from three, that was another factor, but yeah, they did what they were supposed to do.”
The semifinals are not like the first round, which was a best-of-3 series. It’s a best-of-five. Game 2 will be in Minnesota on Tuesday night at 4:30pm Arizona time and on ESPN.
