Stewart's 34 Points Lead Liberty Past Top-Seeded Lynx in WNBA Playoff Opener

The No. 8 New York Liberty shocked top-seeded Minnesota 91-75 on Sept. 27, while A'ja Wilson's 38 points powered Las Vegas and Golden State set a scoring record.

The 2026 WNBA playoffs opened Sunday, Sept. 27, with a four-game slate, and the day's only upset arrived first. The eighth-seeded New York Liberty went on the road and beat the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx 91-75 in Game 1 of their first-round series. The three other higher seeds, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Golden State, all won their openers.

The series is a rematch of the 2024 WNBA Finals, which New York captured for the first championship in franchise history. The 16-point road victory was the Liberty's largest in a playoff game away from home since 2015, and it gave them a 1-0 lead in the best-of-series matchup.

Breanna Stewart delivered the performance of the day. Before tipoff she told her teammates to "set the tone," then went out and posted 34 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, two steals and two blocks. She became the fourth player in WNBA postseason history to finish a game with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, and she hit a three-pointer with 4:07 left in the fourth quarter that pushed the lead to 14.

Stewart entered the playoffs with strong credentials: a 20.8-point scoring average in the regular season, MVP honors at the 2026 Commissioner's Cup and the 2026 FIBA Women's World Cup, three WNBA championships and two Finals MVP awards. "I feel like I want to will my team to win the game," she said afterward. Sabrina Ionescu called her "everything" to the Liberty, citing her reliability and ability to score from anywhere on the floor.

In the day's second game, the third-seeded Las Vegas Aces had little trouble with the No. 6 Indiana Fever behind 38 points from A'ja Wilson. It was the 11th 30-point playoff game of Wilson's career, extending her record for the most in WNBA postseason history. Stewart ranks second in that category with nine. Both stars were drafted first overall, Stewart in 2016 and Wilson in 2018.

The fourth-seeded Atlanta Dream trailed Washington 41-36 at halftime before pulling away for a 92-77 win over the fifth-seeded Mystics. Seventeen-year veteran DeWanna Bonner sparked a 29-point third quarter with 11 of her 13 points. "I done told her you need to shoot that ball," teammate Angel Reese said. "We're gonna go as she goes."

The second-year Golden State Valkyries silenced doubts about their postseason offense with a franchise-record 104 points in a rout of the Dallas Wings. Golden State tied its team record with 18 three-pointers, shot 49% from the field and 50% from beyond the arc, and got more than 20 points apiece from Cecilia Zandalasini, Tiffany Hayes and Gabby Williams. Coach Natalie Nakase earned the franchise's first playoff win, and the Valkyries can clinch a semifinal berth by completing a sweep of Dallas on Wednesday.

For Minnesota, the loss extended a run of painful Octobers. The Lynx were also the No. 1 overall seed in the 2025 playoffs before Phoenix knocked them out in a semifinal series marked by a season-ending injury to Napheesa Collier in Game 3 and a suspension served by coach Cheryl Reeve in Game 4. Their 2024 season ended with a Finals loss to the Liberty in a decisive Game 5 that went to overtime, 67-62, after which Reeve said the title had been "stolen" from her team.