It’s fitting that a record-breaking season for the WNBA would have a decisive Game 5 of its Finals.

Breanna Stewart scored 21 points and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton added 20 to help the New York Liberty beat the Minnesota Lynx 80-66 on Sunday in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals.

On a night that WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced the Finals would go to a best-of-seven format next season, this year’s championship opener was one of the wildest games in playoff history.

Napheesa Collier had 27 points and 11 rebounds and Courtney Williams contributed 24 points and both-ends-of-the-court energy to lead the Minnesota Lynx past the Connecticut Sun 88-77 and into the WNBA Finals for the first time in seven years.

Napheesa Collier scored 26 points and the Minnesota Lynx beat the Connecticut Sun 90-81 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five semifinals series.

Napheesa Collier scored nine of her 26 points in the third quarter, Bridget Carleton made three 3-pointers in the final four minutes and the Minnesota Lynx overcame a 25-point night by Caitlin Clark to snap Indiana’s five-game winning streak with a 99-88 win over the Fever.

Caitlin Clark became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 100 3-pointers in a season and finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for her second career triple-double as the playoff-bound Indiana Fever beat the Los Angeles Sparks 93-86.

Angel Reese became the WNBA’s single-season rebounding leader with eight games left in the Chicago Sky’s 79-74 loss to the Minnesota Lynx, who got 22 points from Courtney Williams.

Napheesa Collier scored 23 points, Courtney Williams added a season-high 22 and the Minnesota Lynx raced past the Las Vegas Aces 98-87.

Chelsea Gray scored 20 points to lead the Las Vegas Aces to their first WNBA title in a 78-71 road win over the Connecticut Sun in Game 4.

A’ja Wilson had 26 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Las Vegas Aces to an 85-71 victory over the Connecticut Sun in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals.

Jonquel Jones had 15 points and 10 rebounds and the Connecticut Sun overcame an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter, beating the Chicago Sky 72-63 in the decisive fifth game of the semifinal series and advancing to the WNBA Finals.

DeWanna Bonner and Courtney Williams each scored 19 points to help the Connecticut Sun rout the Chicago Sky 104-80 and force a decisive Game 5 in their WNBA playoffs semifinal series.

Candace Parker had 16 points and 11 rebounds while Kahleah Copper added 15 points and the Chicago Sky beat the Connecticut Sun 76-72 in Game 3 of the WNBA playoffs semifinals.

Defending WNBA champion Chicago and Connecticut meet Sunday in the WNBA playoffs for the third straight year and a second straight time in the semifinals.

Following Brittney Griner’s sentencing in Russia to nine years in prison Thursday, WNBA players, coaches and fans locked arms and tried to send the American basketball star strength during a moment of silence.

Angel McCoughtry is heading to Minnesota and Briann January is going to Seattle for her final season in the WNBA.

With less than a week remaining before the WNBA begins its Olympic break, teams are jockeying for position in the standings knowing that it will be a sprint to the finish once play resumes in August following the Tokyo Games and a monthlong hiatus.

The WNBA season is only a few weeks old and there already have been five games that have decided in overtime.

The WNBA season isn’t even two weeks old and the New York Liberty have already doubled their win total from last year and are off to their best start since 2007.

(AP Photo/Mike Carlson, File)NEW YORK – Liberty guard Layshia Clarendon, who identifies as transgender and nonbinary, announced on social media Friday that they had surgery to remove breast tissue. The league, the players' union and the New York Liberty released statements offering support to Clarendon. Clarendon wrote in The Players' Tribune five years ago they identify as “black, gay, female, non-cisgender and Christian," and expanded on their identity in an Instagram post in December. “Existing outside of the binary for me is freedom,” Clarendon wrote. I know that my gender will keep evolving because we change and grow and shape shift and expand.