No. 1 NY Liberty are one win away from the WNBA Finals, as No. 2 Minnesota Lynx and No. 3 Connecticut battle for series advantage

The GIST: Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark’s trophy collection keeps growing with more WNBA end-of-season hardware being dished out, but only one member of the recently announced and absolutely stacked All-Rookie Team remains in contention for the championship title. Here’s what’s at stake in tonight’s crucial Game 3s.

No. 2 Minnesota Lynx and No. 3 Connecticut Sun fighting for edge in scrappy 1-1 series: The first two games of this thrilling matchup have been downright physical and full of trash talk, largely a result of both teams’ top-notch defense.

• Two of the W’s best — 2024 Defensive Player of the Year and Lynx living legend, Napheesa Collier, and the Sun’s do-it-all queen Alyssa Thomas — have been guarding each other throughout the series.

• The result? Collier, who scored a combined 80 points in the first two round one playoff games, has only registered 28 across two games vs. the Sun.

• And while Thomas’ penchant for double-doubles has remained largely unchanged against the Lynx, the rest of her squad will need to step up as this series shifts to Connecticut tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET. Can’t wait.

No. 1 NY Liberty need just one win to clinch a second-consecutive Finals appearance: The hungry and vengeful Libs are up 2-0 on the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces, putting the No. 4 seed on the brink of elimination as the series shifts to Sin City tonight at 9:30 p.m. ET.

• Far from breezing to a three-peat, the Aces have an uphill battle ahead — no WNBA team has ever overcome a two-game deficit to win a best-of-five series.

• But this one is far from over. Games 1 and 2 were nailbiters thanks to strong fourth-quarter performances from NY’s Sabrina Ionescu and Vegas’ reigning MVP A’ja Wilson. Plus, Las Vegas has home-court advantage on their side and no choice but to go all in.