This made no sense, of course, since the object was to win and go to Brooklyn for a Sunday night decider, win, and then come back for a parade.
A rugged, remarkable series now goes to Game 5 in Brooklyn on Sunday night — great excitement for the WNBA and with Caitlin Clark, for all those fans she packed in this summer, not required.
The Lynx received splendid first-half efforts from star Napheesa Collier, from relentless Williams and a fired-up Kayla McBride to take a 46-45 lead into the locker room. Williams was 6-for-10 for 13 points and you keep wondering how it was that Reeve knew that getting Williams as a point guard could change everything for her team this season.
And, yet, the most intriguing part of the first half was the number the Lynx did on Stewart, superstar who had 30 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks in Wednesday’s win in Game 3.
Stewart finished 5-for-20, no threes, and only 11 points. Collier’s numbers weren’t much, either. She scored only two points in the second half, finishing with 14 points, but took only 10 shots, half as many as Stewart fired up while banging rims all night.
The postgame message was much better than earlier: Win and go to Brooklyn.
