Last night in the WNBA Playoffs: Fever force Game 3, Lynx win amid controversy

Welcome back to Last night in the WNBA Playoffs, a running post you’ll see throughout the next month or so as we march towards the crowning of a new WNBA champion.

Indiana Fever 80 – New York Liberty 74 (Series tied 1-1)

Myles Turner and George Hill were in attendance as the Fever looked to win yet another elimination game and force Game 3 back in New York.

The Fever staved off elimination two (2) times in their first-round series against the Sky, and had to do it again today.

Early on it looked like a replay of Game 1, as the Liberty were dominating. Briann January had a nice block on Kiah Stokes.

But other than that it was all Liberty in the first half.

The Fever’s defense stood tall in the third quarter, holding the Liberty to just nine points, but Indiana couldn’t get anything going either, and still trailed by 11 going into the fourth.

Shavonte Zellous did end the quarter on a high note though, getting the Friendly Bounce on the three.

But the fourth quarter? The fourth quarter was all Indiana.

AIR. HORN. PLEASE.

Tamika Catchings was doing Tamika Catchings things.

And excuse me, was you saying something? Because uh uh, you can’t tell Marissa Colemon nothing.

Back to Madison Square Garden we go.

Minnesota Lynx 72 – Phoenix Mercury 71 (Lynx win 2-0)

Following in the footsteps of Liberty-Fever Game 2, Lynx-Mercury Game 2 was a classic. Unfortunately it ended in spectacular, but controversial fashion.

Lindsay Whalen started off the show with this filthy backdoor pass to Maya Moore.

Maya was unbelievable all afternoon, going for a 40 ball along with 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals.

MORE FIRE.

But despite Maya shooting flaming arrows from her quiver all game long, the Mercury were hanging around.

Oh, and they were dancing too. Ooh, #WatchMe.

As she has all season long, DeWanna Bonner was hitting big shots, knocking down a three to tie it, and later a jumper to take the lead with less than a minute to go.

But that jumper would be the last points the Mercury scored.

On the next possession, Moore knocked down two free throws to tie the game. Then, following missed opportunities for both teams, the Mercury had the ball on their end of the court with less than 10 seconds to go.

That’s when the craziness happened.

As the Mercury tried to feed the ball to Griner, Maya deflected the pass and corralled the loose ball. In the process, the refs deemed Noelle Quinn to have committed a foul, sending Maya to the line for two free throws with less than two seconds to go.

Maya hit only one, but that was enough as the Lynx escaped Phoenix and earned a trip to the WNBA Finals.