With WNBA Finals even, Lynx will need to keep leaning on Courtney Williams to beat Liberty

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Lynx had just beaten the New York Liberty to win the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup earlier this season, and their next game was a noon start in Dallas.

Courtney Williams just wasn’t into it.

The ninth-year veteran went through the motions in that loss to a Wings team that wound up with the league’s second-worst record, and Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve let her point guard have it.

“We don’t pay you just to play at 7 p.m. If we have a game at noon, we pay you to play then, too,” Reeve said, recalling her message that day.

Williams shot 1 for 6 and had four turnovers. Reeve told her she felt she gave in to the fatigue.

“I told her I would never do that again. You will never have to worry about that again,” Williams said. “I think from that moment, I invited hard.”

Williams went so far as to declare that stern conversation changed her life, an assessment she reiterated again this week when she and Reeve spoke upon the team’s return from New York. The Lynx split the first two games of the WNBA Finals with the Liberty. Game 3 is in Minnesota on Wednesday night.

“Some players aren’t held accountable like that,” Reeve said. “She’s an exceptional listener, and the coachabilty is off the charts.”

That’s one reason Reeve targeted Williams in free agency. Another was her experience. Then there’s the play-making skill the Lynx needed to relieve the defensive intensity around star Napheesa Collier and set up outside shooters Kayla McBride and Bridget Carleton.

Including the four-point play that completed Minnesota’s comeback from an 18-point deficit in Game 1, Williams had 23 points to open the best-of-five series. Liberty coach Sandy Brondello put it succinctly: “Courtney Williams was a thorn in our side. She was the head of the snake.”

Drafted by the Phoenix Mercury eighth overall in 2016 out of South Florida, Williams made the Lynx her fifth team — and fourth in four years — when she signed with them before this season. The native of Georgia had barely begun her rookie year when she was traded, ironically by Brondello, to the Connecticut Sun to start a winding journey around the league.

She had some stellar performances in the playoffs for the Sun over the years, but she never got to experience the thrill of a championship there. This season, playing for a coach in Reeve who guided the Lynx to four titles between 2011 and 2017, Williams has come tantalizingly close to finally getting a ring.

In nine games in these playoffs, she’s averaging 14.9 points and shooting 57.9% from 3-point range.

“Everything you’ve got in your bag, it’s time to pull it out,” Williams said Tuesday after the Lynx practiced at Target Center. “I guess I’m built different. I love the moment. I don’t shy away from the moment at all. All my life, since rec league, I always want the ball in my hand when it’s time to go make a play.”

Despite holding a lead for a total of roughly five minutes over the first two games, the Lynx flipped the home-court advantage. They will also host Game 4 on Friday night and, even though their team chemistry has been exceptional, they have no interest in hopping on another flight to New York for Game 5.

“We always believed it from the beginning. We have a great group,” Williams said. “Yeah, it’s hard. We understand that it’s hard. But we invite hard. We love hard.”

The Liberty deftly recovered from their collapse in Game 1 to take immediate control of Game 2 and follow through with a strong finish.

“The same things that Sandy felt after Game 1, we felt after Game 2,” Reeve said.

The Lynx were focused intently on preparing to play much better in the game’s opening five minutes.

“Don’t wait and let someone else strike first,” Reeve said.

Playing behind a loud crowd should help.

“It’s not going to get any easier from here. This is the Finals,” said Liberty star Breanna Stewart. “It’s only going to get harder, but we’re excited for the atmosphere where nobody’s cheering for us and everybody’s cheering against us.”

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