WNBA: Liberty’s Fiebich, Lynx’s McBride could be critical in Game 3

In Game 1 of the WNBA Finals, Courtney Williams was the closer for the Minnesota Lynx, captaining their comeback. She not only scored 15 of her 24 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, but also converted the four-play that forced the extra period. She was the ultimate X factor, just as Beckett Harrison predicted before the series.

In Game 2, the New York Liberty’s Betnijah Laney-Hamilton fulfilled Zack Ward’s vision, with the second longest-tenured Liberty shaking off the lingering effects of her knee procedure to score a season-high 20 points in a postseason-high 32 minutes of action.

Can Swish Appeal identify who Game 3’s hero will be? It’s probably unwise to press our luck, but between these two Finalists, there’s too many players with the potential for series-shifting impact.

Of course, we know Napheesa Collier, who is leading the playoffs in total points, rebounds, steals and blocks, will be special. As will Breanna Stewart, who shook off her fumbles from down the stretch of Game 1 to deliver a little bit of everything in Game 2, including a Finals-record seven steals. But which role players, like Williams and Laney-Hamilton, will make the plays that support their superstars and put their team over the top? How about Leonie Fiebich and Kayla McBride?

Will Leonie lift the Liberty?

Photo by Lauren Leigh Bacho/NBAE via Getty Images

Quite possibly, one of the most critical buckets of Game 2 provided a preview of what’s to come in Game 3 from Leonie Fiebich.

After a double team from Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu forced Courtney Williams to dribble the ball off her foot, Fiebich recovered it and headed toward the Liberty’s basket. Behind the 3-point line, she had the opportunity to hit a streaking Stewart for what likely would have been an easy score. The rookie set up to shoot and then paused, seeming ponder if she should, in fact, fire off the wide-open triple. She did. And it rattled in, taking New York’s lead from six points to nine points with 1:30 remaining. It was the dagger that saved the Liberty from reliving the drama of Game 1.

That was only Fiebich’s third shot attempt and lone make of Game 2. In Game 1, she scored 17 points, albeit on her most inefficient shooting night of the postseason. Yet, she remains the Liberty’s plus/minus queen, with New York outscoring opponents by a team-high 90 points in her 231 playoff minutes. It’s a stat the captures how she is the Liberty’s skeleton key, with her combination of size, strength, savvy and shooting unlocking the best of New York on both ends of the floor.

Expect her quieter Finals impact to eventually become loud. If the Liberty are to breakthrough and finally win the franchise’s first championship, it likely will involve a series of big shots from the 24-year-old German.

Time to get McBuckets!

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Big shots? That’s Kayla McBride’s brand.

McBride has the second-most playoff experience on the Lynx, with her 28 games trailing only Courtney Williams’ 33. In Minnesota’s 2021 and 2023 playoff runs, that experience showed, as her production increased in the postseason. In 2021, the Lynx’s postseason lasted a single game, yet not because of McBride, who made four 3s and scored 19 points in a loss to the eventual champion Chicago Sky. Last season, she dropped 28 points, boosted by six triples, as Minnesota won Game 2 of their first-round series against the Connecticut Sun.

In 2024, McBride’s playoff production has dipped; after averaging 15 points per game and shooting over 40 percent from 3 in the regular season, she’s averaging 13.9 per game and shooting 36.4 from long range through nine playoff games. That’s not to suggest that McBride hasn’t been good in these playoffs. In Game 1 of the Finals, she scored 22 points, draining four 3s. She also busting it on the defensive end. McBride is doing her best to stick with Sabrina Ionescu, marshaling her strength and smarts to keep the Liberty guard in check. In Game 1, she induced Ionescu into one of the most inefficient, high-volume shooting nights in Finals history.

And yet, if the Lynx are to win this series, McBride can’t just be good, or even very good—she needs to be great. She’s already helped one of her teams win a title in 2024 with such greatness. In the EuroLeague Women championship game, she tallied 25 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals, sealing a second-straight EuroLeague Women crown for Fenerbahçe. If she unleashes a similar effort in these Finals, McBride might be adding a WNBA championship to her trophy case.