Our relationship with sports can often be painful and unforgiving. Maybe you’re a Falcons fan who watched the team blow a 28-3 lead in the Super Bowl. Or maybe you’re actually LeBron James and you just realized there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop the 73-9 Warriors, which substituted Harrison Barnes for Kevin Durant. It happens, ya know.
The Lynx-Sparks rivalry is the gift that keeps on giving
We’re getting ANOTHER Game 5 in the WNBA Finals.
But sometimes, as sports fans, we are the luckiest fools on this round earth and that’s what I feel like the WNBA is allowing us to be. For the second year in a row, we’re getting another winner-take-all Game 5 in the WNBA Finals. And it’s not just any Game 5. It’s between the Lynx and Sparks — arguably the best matchup between two teams in the history of the WNBA.
For starters, since Game 1 of the 2016 WNBA Finals, the teams have played 12 times. In those 12 games, the combined score is 908-908. COME ON.
But these two teams couldn’t be more different. The Sparks are free flowing, they play position-less basketball, and they even have an element of L.A. Showtime to them. The Lynx? They’re tough, they’re gritty, and they wear you down with their depth. It’s hard to shake a team like the Lynx, which has won three titles since 2011. But somehow the Sparks can do it. The two teams are complete opposites, and that’s why it such a blessing we’re getting all we can out of this matchup.
It’s hard to say what will happen in Game 5, but history will be made either way.
For Maya Moore, since high school, she has never gone two years without a championship. If the Lynx were to lose in Game 5, it would be the longest championship drought of her career ... AT TWO YEARS. Moore is an absolute winner.
But history is on the Sparks’ side too. The 2017 WNBA Finals so far have played out eerily similar to the 2016 Finals, where the Sparks won the title:
Game 1 - 2016 - LA wins on the road
Game 1 - 2017 - LA wins on the road
Game 2 - 2016 - MIN evens the series at home
Game 2 - 2017 - MIN evens the series at home
Game 3 - 2016 - LA wins and is one game away from a championship
Game 3 - 2017 - LA wins and is one game away from a championship
Game 4 - 2016 - MIN wins on the road to force a Game 5
Game 4 - 2017 - MIN wins on the road to force a Game 5
Game 5 - 2016 - LA wins Finals on the road on a game winner from Nneka Ogwumike
Game 5 - 2017 - ????
If the Sparks do pull off back-to-back championships, they’ll put themselves in elite company. The only WNBA teams to have done this were the Houston Comets and the Lisa Leslie-led L.A. Sparks.
Game 5 tips off on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. EST on ESPN, and the one thing we know for sure is that it will be must-watch basketball.
