Breanna Stewart, the Liberty’s past MVP winner, and Napheesa Collier, the Lynx’s future MVP winner, again were sidelined due to injuries.

Minnesota’s starters collectively had a poor offensive night Tuesday, yet the Lynx bench almost rescued the team. Starting guard Courtney Williams overcame a slow start to finish with a team-high

The Liberty felt Tuesday night was a perfect opportunity to send a message — a 85-75 victory while shorthanded to avoid a regular-season sweep.

Thus ends the series of Finals rematches between the Liberty and Lynx, who played to a five-game thriller last fall in what became New York's first postseason championship run. None of the four games featured Liberty star Breanna Stewart while her fellow UConn alum and Unrivaled co-founder Napheesa Collier missed the latter three.

With less than a month left in the WNBA regular season, the Minnesota Lynx have a firm lock on the top seed in the playoffs.

New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu delivered a message to the Minnesota Lynx after a statement win in the heated rivalry.

Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier missed her fifth game, and the Liberty’s Breanna Stewart is still sidelined with a injured knee.

The Minnesota Lynx have woken the sleeping giant. Back on Aug. 2, the Lynx defeated the Las Vegas Aces 111-58. It felt like a rock-bottom moment for the Aces, a team that had entered the season with title aspirations. How does a team come back from a loss that bad?

If the reigning champion New York Liberty and league-leading Minnesota Lynx didn't already have an official rivalry, they do now thanks to recent comments from Lynx guard Courtney Williams and Liberty coach Sandy Brondello.