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Best winner-take-all games in WNBA Finals history
Minnesota Lynx forward Maya Moore, left, reaches in on Los Angeles Sparks forward Candace Parker during the first half in Game 4 of the WNBA basketball finals, Sunday, Oct. 16, 2016, in Los Angeles. The Lynx and the Sparks battle tonight in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals to determine the 2016 champions. AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

Best winner-take-all games in WNBA Finals history

There’s something magical about the idea of a winner-take-all game. It’s why no matter how well or poorly the viewership may be for a playoff series in any team sport – save for the NFL’s single-elimination format – more eyeballs tune in for the last game where both combatants have no choice but to put any and every ounce of energy left to win. It’s the stuff clichés are made of, but not without reason.

Sunday night in Game 4 of the WNBA Finals, with a repeat bid threatening to come up short, the Minnesota Lynx reminded themselves and fans of who they were as the defending champions. Maya Moore played her best Finals game in her career with 31 points (on 53% shooting), nine rebounds, five assists, two blocks and two steals. (Keep in mind that she’s played in five Finals over her six WNBA seasons.) In doing so, she not only brought the series back to Minneapolis, but very well could keep Candace Parker from her first WNBA title.

Excluding the 1997 WNBA Championship Game, a single-game affair where the now-defunct Houston Comets began the league’s initial dynasty with a 65-51 win over the New York Liberty, there have been eight winner-take-all games in the league’s 20 seasons. Under the best-of-three format that began in 1998, there were four Game 3s where the Comets (1998, 1999), Detroit Shock (2003) and Seattle Storm (2004) raised the championship at the end. Under the current best-of-five format that was implemented in 2005, there have been four Game 5s, including the Lynx’s win over the Indiana Fever last fall.

Regardless of sport, league or gender, not every final game is remembered as a classic or a particularly close contest as the eventual champion powers ahead so quickly that the opponent never recovers. Yet, those that are remembered stand out for a perfect tension that rarely abates until the confetti falls upon the winner. With the ultimate Game 5 taking place in Minneapolis on Thursday, we picked the three best winner-take-all games in WNBA Finals history.

2006 Finals Game 5: Detroit Shock 80, Sacramento Monarchs 75

In this series, the Shock and Monarchs played in games where one or the other just appeared completely flat-footed. Games 2, 3 and 4 featured fourth-quarter rallies where the victors imposed their will. Game 5 provided far more intrigue as both teams responded to an even first quarter with major rallies in subsequent stanzas. Sacramento took control before halftime before Detroit roared ahead in the third quarter.

With a lead growing to 13 by the last minutes of fourth quarter, the Shock were, pardon the pun, shocked by the Monarchs’ late push. Kristin Haynie and Kara Lawson scored 16 of Sacramento’s final 20 points, and a Nicole Powell three-pointer cut Detroit’s lead to 78-75 with 33 seconds remaining. Katie Smith’s jumper with 14.8 seconds left sealed the win and the second of the Shock’s two WNBA titles.

2009 Finals Game 5: Phoenix Mercury 94, Indiana Fever 86

It began with an accident: Indiana’s Katie Douglas hit her coach Lin Dunn with the most enthusiastic dap ever. The tensions were that high as both teams felt as if they had something harder than fist bumps to throw at each other, and they did. While the Fever tried to set the tone in the paint with center Tammy Sutton-Brown’s 22 points and Jessica Davenport’s 18, the second quarter was where the Mercury backcourt of Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter (now with Chicago) went bombs away from the perimeter. Indiana tried to run at the same pace, but didn’t close out well on Phoenix’s shooters. The Mercury pulled away late, but not without a few close calls in the Fever’s final possession: Douglas missed two three-point attempts with seconds left that would have cut the lead to one.

Sidenote: look at Tamika Catchings’ incredible stat line at the end of the clip. In a game that displayed why she is arguably the best all-around player in league history, she scored 19 points, but nabbed nine rebounds, six assists, two blocks and five steals.


2003 Finals Game 3: Detroit Shock 83, Los Angeles Sparks 78

Worst to first. That was the history set by the Shock in their first of two championships. They became the first team in major North American professional sports to live up to the Hollywood script of going from the worst team in the league to its champions in a year’s time. Yet, it wasn’t exactly a smooth ride getting there, especially going against the face of the league (at the time), Lisa Leslie and the defending champion Sparks. Also add the backdrop of the history between their big brother franchises, the Lakers and Pistons, to the mix. Bill Laimbeer going against Michael Cooper… as coaches? Cheryl Ford, the daughter of recent Lakers’ signee and future Hall of Famer, Karl Malone, playing for Detroit?

Ruth Riley dropped 27 for Detroit, her career high, while Leslie struggled with only 13 points before fouling out in the final moments. Los Angeles momentarily had the lead until Detroit made a couple of timely buckets, including the go-ahead three pointer from Flint native, Deanna Nolan.

Yet, what’s actually recalled a bit more than Nolan’s shot was the Shock’s final points as Ford, that season’s Rookie of the Year, calmly sank two free throws while Malone sat in the stands nervous as all hell. Considering the relationship between the two, the embrace between them at the end was seared into memory. (Oh, and we can’t forget that Malone signed with the Lakers that offseason, the team that would lose in the NBA Finals the following June in the same building to the Pistons.)

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