The No. 1 Seeded Lynx Lost Another WNBA Playoff Heartbreaker. No One Has a Good Answer Why.

Another year, another heartbreaking playoff exit for the Lynx. The WNBA’s No. 1 seed crashed out of the postseason in disappointing fashion Tuesday night after getting swept in their first-round series against the No. 8 seeded-Liberty.

Game 2’s 87-71 loss was as historic as it was tragic for the Lynx, marking the first time an 8 seed won its series against a 1 seed since the postseason format changed in 2016 (previously, the top seed had a bye). The worst part may be that the Lynx had no excuse for their playoff dud, not like last year. They were out-classed, out-muscled and out-played by a talented New York squad that wasn’t your traditional gritty No. 8 seed. But when you have the Coach of the Year, Rookie of the Year and the best regular season record in the league on your side, you just expect better.

Here's one trivial reason: Lynx star Napheesa Collier, who returned from dual offseason ankle injuries, still didn’t look fully healthy in the gotta-have-it road matchup. Collier was asked in her postgame press conference why her team’s regular-season success hasn’t led to championships, and she didn’t have a good answer.

“I don’t know, I feel like if we knew the answer to that, we would be translating it over,” Collier said, via Andrew Dukowitz. “That’s something that obviously we have to figure it out. We play really well in the regular season, and I mean, the game is hard. I think any team could win a championship this year [given] the parity in the game. And playoffs are another level. So yeah, I think that’s a move we gotta figure out.”

Napheesa Collier on why the Lynx have finished 2nd in 2024, 1st in 2025 and 1st in 2026 not translating to a championship

“I don’t know, I feel like if we knew the answer to that, we would be translating it over. That’s something that obviously we have to figure it out” pic.twitter.com/ioxT82j3Dw
— Andrew Dukowitz (@adukeMN) September 30, 2026

Minnesota’s plagued postseason woes was apparently on the team’s mind earlier this season.

Just a month ago, Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve reportedly told her players at practice, “We can be the best regular-season team again for the third year in a row and not win a championship, or we can do what we need to do to win it all.”

“How can we win 64 games in two years and not have a championship?” Reeve also asked herself, via ESPN. “My son said to me when he was four or five, ‘Mom, it’s someone else’s turn.’ I was like, f---, that may be the truth. But now, a couple of years later, it’s like, O.K., when is it our turn?”

Unable to change their all-too-familiar playoff fates, Minnesota ended up following in their own flopping footsteps in Tuesday’s defeat, one that saw the Lynx’s offense go limp against New York’s rejuvenated Big Three of Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones, who combined for 60 points.

Prior to this year’s first-round sweep at the hands of the Liberty, the Lynx lost in the semifinals against the Mercury in 2025 and in the WNBA Finals against the Liberty in ‘24. Two of those years, Minnesota finished as the top overall seed in the regular season; the Lynx were the No. 2 seed heading into their Finals run.

MORE: Cheryl Reeve Has Already Cemented Her Legacy, But She’s Nowhere Near Finished

Similar to Collier, Reeve lamented the Lynx’s lack of silverware in recent years and gave her blunt assessment on what needs to change moving forward.

“There are sometimes when you have that team and that would be the case, you should feel that way,” Reeve said, via ESPN’s Alexa Philippou. “I have not felt like we’ve had that team over these three years, and so what we’re doing is sort of maybe exceeding expectations in the regular season, and then when it comes playoffs, maybe we don’t quite have the right group to be effective.

“I just know we have some work to do. I have to help us. I have to get us the appropriate help to do it, make the hard decisions to do that. I couldn’t get us there in this series, and so it’s on me. I have to help them win in the playoffs ... both as an executive [president of basketball operations] and as the coach, and I’ll find a way to do that.”

As stunning as the Lynx’s early playoff crash-out was, there were signs. Before the two-week-plus FIBA World Cup break, the Lynx looked by far the league’s most formidable title contender with a sterling 31-7 record. Then, Minnesota lost four of six to end its regular season. Entering the first round of the postseason, Reeve’s side has faced schematic problems against the Liberty’s size and length before (New York was 3-1 in their head-to-head regular season series.) Come Tuesday, Reeve still hadn’t come up with even a band-aid solution to stymie the Liberty’s attack, and Minnesota walked away from another lost season. Empty-handed, again.

And it might only get harder from here. On the heels of the WNBA’s landmark collective bargaining agreement this past offseason, Collier notably signed a one-year deal to stay in Minnesota. Other Lynx vets like Kayla McBride, Courtney Williams and Natasha Howard are signed through 2027; Minnesota also has reigning unanimous ROY Olivia Miles locked down for the next several years with a team option. (Miles, by the way, struggled across her first two career playoff games, shooting 4-of-20 for 16 points with just two assists and five turnovers. She’ll have plenty of time to get better.)

McBride, for one, sounded wistful in her postgame press conference about sharing the court with Collier for what could be the last time:

“I mean, we’ve been through a lot together,” she said. “I think the biggest thing with this group, like these two up here, there’s just a lot of unconditional love ... [Courtney Williams and Napheesa Collier] are two really really special people, just people, before anything, so that embrace is about the people that are sitting next to me, my sisters, the people that I love, that will be in my life forever.”

Kayla McBride on the embrace she shared with Courtney Williams and Napheesa Collier as the clock expired

“I mean, we’ve been through a lot together. I think the biggest thing with this group, like these two up here, there’s just a lot of unconditional love… these are two… pic.twitter.com/AiXztDk5x5
— Andrew Dukowitz (@adukeMN) September 30, 2026

If this is it for Collier, she might leave Minnesota as one of the most talented Lynx players under Reeve who failed to win a chip. During Reeve’s 17-year tenure at the helm of the franchise, she’s lifted the Lynx to four WNBA titles (2011, ‘13, ‘15, ‘17), and she became the WNBA’s all-time regular-season coaching wins leader in July. Her reputation should precede itself. But, so too, does the Lynx’s recent tarnished reputation of falling short of the league’s biggest prize.

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