Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve says Game 3 of WNBA Finals at Target Center will sell out

The arena's upper bowl will be opened for Games 3 and 4 after it was closed off for the first two rounds.

By Kent Youngblood Star Tribune

October 16, 2024 — 12:29am

The WNBA Finals are bound to set attendance records.

Game 2 Sunday in Brooklyn's Barclays Center drew a sellout crowd of 18,046 — the largest in the arena in New York Liberty history and the third-largest at a Finals game in league history.

Now the Lynx expect to beat it.

More than 17,000 tickets had been sold for Game 3 on Wednesday at Target Center, which has a listed capacity of 18,798.

"We'll sell out," Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said after practice Tuesday. "We'll get to a sellout, which will the biggest crowd of these playoffs."

The Lynx had official sellouts earlier in the playoffs, but that was with the upper bowl of Target Center closed off.

The Lynx set a franchise record for a regular-season game on Aug. 24, getting 19,023 against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever.

"It would mean a lot," Lynx star Napheesa Collier said with the best-of-five series tied at 1-1. "We always talk about our fans. To see it happening, for them to come out and support us, would be huge. We feel it's a must-win game."

From the start

Much of the focus on the first two games of this series was on the way they ended. Minnesota rallied to win Game 1 in overtime. The Liberty finished Game 2 with a 12-0 run breaking open a two-point game.

But the Lynx are more focused on the way both of those games started.

In Game 1 the Lynx were down 15 late in the first quarter. In Game 2 they fell behind by 17 with 3:21 left in the second quarter.

"We are really locked into the first 5 minutes of Game 3," Reeve said. "The message is it's a best-of-three now. We want Game 1. It's how we go about our business in the first five minutes, the first quarter, the first half that will dictate everything."

The Lynx, at one point down 18, came all the way back in the first game, but couldn't get over the hump in the second.

"We dig a hole and we have to use our fight to get out of the hole," guard Courtney Williams said. "Imagine we didn't get in that hole, and we still got some fight?"

Troubling threats

Liberty star Breanna Stewart and her wife, Marta Xargay, received threatening homophobic anonymous emails after Game 1 of the WNBA Finals.

The emails went directly to Xargay's account.

"The fact it came to Marta's email is something she [had to] see," Stewart said Tuesday. "The level of closeness was a little bit different. Make sure that myself and Marta are okay, but that our kids are the safest."

Stewart missed a crucial free throw at the end of regulation in Game 1, and also missed a layup at the buzzer in an overtime loss to the Lynx. She said she notified the Liberty about the emails and they escalated it to league security.

"We love that people are engaged in our sport, but not to the point where there's threats or harassment or homophobic comments being made," the two-time WNBA MVP said.