After sweeping the GSV 2-0, Minnesota knew their next challenge in the semis would be none other than Alyssa Thomas. So Cheryl Reeve ensured her team came prepared. “Eat your Wheaties,” she quipped before Game 1 against the Mercury. “She’s great at what she does. And we’ll try to be intelligent about … her physicality or her disrupting and all the things that she does.” It turns out that the plan worked, as the Lynx rallied to an 82-69 win, all while keeping AT from putting her usual stamp on the game.

While AT is known for her physicality and triple-doubles, in Semis Game 1, she got highlighted for being limited to 18 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists in 37 minutes. Yes, it’s above her regular-season average of 15.4 points. But by halftime, Thomas had already pushed the opponents into a corner with her 16 points in the paint, forcing Cheryl Reeve and her team to regroup. So, there was potential for more. Kayla McBride put it best, saying, “[Alyssa Thomas] is a great player. She’s continuously shown that throughout her career”. 

“When you’re playing against great players, you know that they’re going to be able to get part of what they do well, what they do great, why she’s in the MVP conversation, things like that. You just gotta keep fighting and stay competitive, and you do what you can.” And yes, that’s the mantra going forward… “keep fighting.”

On Sunday night, the game started as usual, but it was a complete blowout with Phoenix securing 42 of their 47 points in the paint in the first half, a WNBA playoff record for most points in the paint in a half. However, in the second half, the Lynx flipped the script. They held the Mercury to a mere 22 points in the third and fourth quarters. However, as implied earlier, it might not have been possible had they not contained the triple-double queen, Alyssa Thomas.

Who knows it better than McBride? She’s the one who slowed down Thomas on Sunday, which is a challenge considering the phenom Thomas has been throughout the year. AT made eight triple-doubles during the regular season, crossing her own mark of six. Her last triple-double feat came against the LA Sparks, wherein she played for a mere 21 minutes and 52 seconds.

And the way she tallied triple-doubles in the regular season, it was quite obvious she would replicate it in the playoffs, too. She did… during the Mercury’s 79-73 win over defending champions NY Liberty. She had 20 points with 11 rebounds and 11 assists, marking her fifth playoff triple-double.

“Is that AT’s first triple-double of the year?” joked Mercury HC Nate Tibbetts after the win. “This is just what she does. She impacts the game in so many different ways. She cares about one thing, and that’s winning… When you’ve got a player of her caliber with that much pride to win a game and do whatever it takes, you’re going to have a great team.” Now, she’s the only one of the three players who have had a triple-double in the playoffs after Courtney Vandersloot and Sheryl Swoopes.

And besides being an amazing player, it was also her physical play that threatened the Lynx. As Reeve said, “And we’ll try to be intelligent about whether it’s her physicality or her disrupting and all the things that she does. You know, the WNBA’s version of the tush-push is here in their flat screen that they run. And we’ll see how it goes for us. But if it doesn’t go well for us, we’re gonna be petitioning to get that shit out of our league”. 

Well, in Game 1 first quarter itself, AT drove the Mercury to keep the Lynx back and forth with eight lead changes and seven ties. By the end, AT led the Mercury with eight points and three rebounds, while Sabally followed up with six points and an assist. But the real threat came up in the third quarter. It was when Thomas switched the ball from right to left hand, and in the process, she ended up hitting Minnesota’s Natisha Hiedeman in the chin.

While she charged toward the basket, it was a technical foul with 36.2 seconds remaining. Then, Lynx guard Kayla McBride hit the technical free throw to tie things up at 59 all. At the same time, Maria Kliundikova entered the court for Shepard, and the game flipped. The Lynx outscored the Mercury, despite AT’s hustle.

Statistically, her performance was above average as she’s putting up 16.3 points per game in the 2025 playoffs. But against the Lynx, Thomas had an average of 20.5 points per game across two regular-season games. So yes, the strategy did work well.

With the HC’s help, Lynx turns panic into poise! 

Despite being the league’s top team and first to secure a playoff berth, the Lynx were losing. They failed to outscore the Mercury, the opponent who came into the semis after eliminating the defending champions from the 2025 championship run. But Reeve knew how to kick things off.

As she analyzed the entire situation from the sidelines, she got her special message ready to be conveyed. “We’ve been through a lot of adverse situations in the last two years together, so we always know it’s a team effort. In those moments we need to brainstorm or whatever. We’re not on islands; we’re doing it together. There was just another example of that in our halftime conversation,” revealed guard Kayla McBride.

And it did work as the team responded by limiting the Mercury to just 22 points in the second half. By limiting AT and the company to a mere 9-for-36 shots, including 2-for-15 from outside the arc in the last two quarters, the Lynx secured an 82-69 win. But do you know what worked the most? A “collaborative” effort. When the Lynx players entered the locker room down by seven, they stayed calm, supporting each other as visible on the court. One hour later, they returned with a win. But can they add another to take a step further toward their goal???