Top seeds look to avoid upset in Tuesday doubleheader
The 2015 WNBA playoffs have had one series that ended in an upset, with a better-seeded team falling at home, as No. 3 Indiana knocked off No. 2 Chicago in Game 3 Monday and advanced to the conference finals. Will the top seeds in the East and West be able to avoid joining the Sky on the sidelines?
We'll find out Tuesday night as New York hosts Washington (ESPN2, 7 ET), followed by Los Angeles at Minnesota (ESPN2, 9 ET).
The Liberty lost the opening game of their series with Washington, 86-83 in double overtime on Friday at home, then had to stave off elimination on the Mystics' home court Sunday. And the Liberty did that pretty handily, taking control of the game in the third quarter and winning 86-68.
Now the Liberty are back at Madison Square Garden, where they had a 12-5 record during the regular season. The Liberty drew 10,120 on Friday and hope to approach that kind of number Tuesday, as well.
The Mystics thought they sabotaged themselves with a subpar defensive effort Sunday, but the Liberty are very hard to stop when they are as multidimensional as they were in that game.
"It's important to have everyone involved in the playoffs, and for them to know, 'Hey, you need to be ready,'" New York's Essence Carson said. "Everyone is needed, because you never know what can happen or when it can happen. We showed [Sunday] everybody could step on the floor and get things done."
If the Liberty win, then the Eastern Conference finals will begin in New York on Wednesday night (ESPN2, 7 p.m. ET) -- rather than Thursday as originally scheduled -- because of the pope's impending visit to Madison Square Garden. If the Mystics win, then the East finals will begin Thursday at Indiana (ESPN2, 7 p.m. ET).
As for the West semifinal series, the Lynx won in a down-to-the-wire game 67-65 in Minneapolis on Friday. But the Sparks' big second quarter was the key to Game 2 in Long Beach on Sunday, as Los Angeles prevailed 81-71.
Now it's likely going to be a case of which team's bench supports its star the best, as Minnesota's Maya Moore and Los Angeles' Candace Parker have both been strong so far. The winner of Tuesday's game faces defending champion Phoenix, which swept its series with Tulsa, in Game 1 of the West finals on Thursday (ESPN2, 9 p.m. ET). Minnesota will host that game if the Lynx win, but the Mercury will host if the Sparks win.
By the way, if both New York and Minnesota are upset on Tuesday, it would be the first time ever that the conference finals wouldn't have a No. 1 seed. The league went to three rounds of playoffs in 1999 when it expanded to 12 teams.
