The Liberty beat the Lynx 87–71 in Game 2, advance to the WNBA semifinals
The Liberty held on to win the first-round series 2–0; the No. 4 Dream are next.
Game story
The New York Liberty beat the Minnesota Lynx 87–71 in Game 2 on Tuesday, September 29. Breanna Stewart led the Liberty with 21 points; Courtney Williams had 18 for the Lynx. The win closes out the first round series 2–0 and sends the Liberty to the WNBA semifinals against the Dream; the Lynx’s season is over.
Minnesota Lynx vs. New York Liberty | FULL GAME HIGHLIGHTS | September 29, 2026
Official video · WNBA on YouTube · plays in YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode when you press play · Watch on YouTube ↗
Who stood out
Breanna Stewart (Liberty): 21 points on 6-of-16 shooting (0-of-4 from three), 9-of-9 at the line in 40 minutes, a +16 in her minutes. She came in averaging 20.6 points over 44 games of the 2026 regular season.
Jonquel Jones (Liberty): 21 points and 13 rebounds on 9-of-14 shooting (1-of-3 from three), 2-of-2 at the line in 32 minutes, a +15 in her minutes.
Courtney Williams (Lynx): 18 points and 8 rebounds on 8-of-17 shooting (1-of-2 from three), 1-of-1 at the line in 38 minutes, a -12 in her minutes.
Breanna Stewart: Game 2 against her baselines
This game · her last 10 before it · her regular season entering it
Baselines are her regular-season games before this one (PropSports game log). Playoff games are never mixed into them.
PropSports box score (game 401918017) and PropSports game log values as of Sep 29, 2026 payload 43daa9588292d780
Show the numbers in this figure
| Game 2 · 1 game | Last 10 · 10 G | Season · 44 G | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 21 | 19.2 | 20.6 |
| Rebounds | 5 | 7.9 | 8.5 |
| Assists | 4 | 3.7 | 3.4 |
| Minutes | 40 | 32.1 | 32.9 |
How it happened
The second quarter was the swing — the Liberty won it 23–16 — and they led 49–37 at halftime. The game had no lead changes; the Liberty’s largest lead was 19.
The Lynx’s bench outscored the Liberty’s, 18–16.
The Liberty made 32-69 from the field (46%) and 10-32 from three; the Lynx 26-68 (38%). Turnovers ran 13–12, and points off turnovers 5–16 in the Lynx’s favor — the margin came from shooting, not possession control. Rebounds went 36–29, points in the paint 44–28.
Where the game separated
The 5 team stats with the widest gaps
Selected by the size of each difference relative to a typical game-to-game gap for that stat. Descriptive, not a causal breakdown of the margin.
PropSports box score and linescore (game 401918017) values as of Sep 29, 2026 payload 7625b0817e92ebe1
Show the numbers in this figure
| Liberty | Lynx | |
|---|---|---|
| Free throw % | 100% | 79% |
| Points in the paint | 44 | 28 |
| Points off turnovers | 5 | 16 |
| Field goal % | 46% | 38% |
| 3-point % | 31% | 40% |
What it means
A reason to be cautious about carrying this game forward: the Liberty gave up more points off turnovers than they scored, 16–5. One game is still one game.
The Liberty came into the series as the No. 8 seed and the Lynx as the No. 1; the lower seed completed the upset.
Next for the Liberty: the No. 4 Atlanta Dream in the best-of-five semifinals, opening on the road as the No. 8 seed. Game 1 is at State Farm Arena on Sunday, October 4.
Next up: NY at ATL on Oct 4 (no market capture yet) — and the Dream allow 84.5 a game, 12th-most of 15. Player props enter the board inside 36 hours of tip.
First Round series
Liberty win the series 2–0
- W+16
- W+16
Each final game of the best-of-3 series through this one, from the Liberty side; the number is the final margin.
PropBetEdge playoff bracket (final scores) values as of Sep 29, 2026 payload 6c2c0af8e4578da8
Show the numbers in this figure
| Team | Game | Result | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberty | Game 1 at MIN (91–75) | W | +16 |
| Liberty | Game 2 vs MIN (87–71) | W | +16 |
Betting relevance
On the spread: DraftKings’ line, had the Lynx favored by 3.5; the 16-point margin put the Liberty on the right side of the spread.
The 158 combined points went under the 174.5 total.
Breanna Stewart (21 points against 20.6 entering the game and 19.2 over her previous 10) is the line the next prop market has to price.
Markets touched: Spread · Total · Moneyline
Market evidence
Market reference: DraftKings (a single sportsbook). PropBetEdge also holds a pre-tip capture from Sep 29.
Unknowns
How the market prices both teams on the next slate beyond the stored captures.
Evidence & methodology4 cited records · how this story was built
Records cited
- PropSports box score + play-by-play + shot locations · source ↗
- PropSports team schedules (records after the game, scoring entering it) · source ↗
- PropSports standings (standings as of Oct 2) · source ↗
- DraftKings line
How this story was built
Photo: BDZ Sports · CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)Pictured: Breanna Stewart.
Generated by PropBetEdge’s deterministic newsroom (wnba-articles/1.7.0 · Full story, wnba-depth/1.1.0) and checked by the publication gate before release; betting relevance: actionable.
Revisions
- · Updated with new source data
- · Updated with new source data
Editorial policy · Corrections & revisions · Methodology · Sources
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