BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Two minutes before the end of the fourth quarter of Game 1, the WNBA emailed out its list of players scheduled to speak at the postgame press conference. Postgame media has operated this way since the league closed locker rooms to reporters a few years ago. You can ask other players to chat with them outside if necessary, but the obvious stars usually end up in front of the microphones. The Minnesota Lynx, who were nine points behind at the time, sent Napheesa Collier and Kayla McBride to talk. McBride had her best shooting night of the playoffs, reassuring the New York crowd as they were swept up in the Liberty's transition in the first quarter. Collier played a textbook defensive game. But about 60 real minutes and 400 lives later, Minnesota's leading scorer arrived in the interview room. “Waddup, waddup, waddup!” She crowed on her way to the table. Courtney Williams had changed the plan.

Williams beamed at perhaps the best WNBA Finals game ever, which the Lynx won 95-93 in overtime on Thursday after trailing the Liberty for all but the final five seconds of regulation. If “best ever” sounds hyperbolic, then perhaps I’m talking about Williams, who, when asked where her four-point game ranks in her career, responded, “Right now it’s one because we’re here. “I like to be where my feet are planted.” The Lynx were down 15 points with five minutes to play, a deficit no team had ever overcome in the finals. But a mix of tactical changes and clutch plays wiped out the Liberty's lead – and my memories of it.

A basketball player's basketball player, Collier has never been accused of flashing, and that often belies the extent of her talents. After Collier was named Defensive Player of the Year ahead of A'ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon said she didn't believe voters should be sent down a “rabbit hole of analysis” to make awards decisions. But the case, which was processed on Thursday evening, hardly required the eye of an expert. Collier grew and shrank as needed, switching to Sabrina Ionescu and killing the Liberty pick-and-roll herself. (Ionescu's ugly final line: 8 of 26 shots.) More often, she guarded Breanna Stewart, who is three inches taller and shot 1-for-11 , with Collier being their main defender. For her final trick, Collier beat an even bigger Jonquel Jones and blocked a shot on a possession she had begun to look the other way. She would finish the night with three steals and six blocks to go for 21 points. Crucially, Collier made late-game stops at the five-man line to help a small-ball Lynx lineup get back into the game.

Williams set up the chaotic final minute of the game, which the referees more or less improvised. The guard made a game-winning three-pointer and drew a shooting foul, giving the Lynx a one-point lead with five seconds left in regulation. On the Liberty's next inbounds play, Collier managed to knock the ball away and it appeared to go out of bounds off Stewart's shoe, but the referees decided on a “jump ball” call. Team boss Isaac Barnett later told the pool reporter that none of the match officials had “definitive knowledge” of the last player to touch the ball. Such pieces can only be reviewed if they are challenged; Since neither team had a timeout to contest the call, the jump ball stood. When Williams was called for a jump-ball violation to give New York possession, it looked like the Liberty might escape. Stewart was fouled on her shot attempt with 0.8 seconds left in the game. She made her first free throw but missed the second and the game went into overtime.

Another five minutes showcased the full range of Courtney Williams. With the Lynx up by four, she attempted a pass that Ionescu swiped away to make the game 93-91 with 32 seconds left. (Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve asked Williams about it after the game: “The five assists, does the one you threw sab count?”) Another steal later, this time from Jones, and the game ended again with eight assists seconds left . But it had to end, and it ended at the hands of the woman who would always be at the postgame press conference, no matter what. Collier spun through the tangle of arms in the Liberty frontcourt and coolly hit a game-winning fadeaway over Jones.

For the Liberty, the Lynx seemed strangely safe in its disadvantages. If Collier struggled in these playoffs, it was the length that bothered her, and this big Liberty team tends to pose the same matchup problems as the Connecticut Sun. On offense, New York defeated Minnesota 20-5. Jones, poised for a win, led all scorers with 24 points. But like McBride, their night became the flotsam of a hundred game stories written and discarded. Minnesota opted for an undersized lineup to close the game: “If the big guys weren’t going to rebound, they might as well go for the little guys. It couldn't get any worse, could it?” Reeve explained – and George Costanza's opposite strategy worked. The Lynx appeared on the screen when it mattered most: Alanna Smith, whose play Reeve described as “understated,” parried a miss by Williams and gave her another chance for the game-winning shot.

Sometimes I find it hard to reconcile the Liberty fandom portrayed – the stylish elephant; the positive, pleasant mood! – with Liberty basketball, the real and often irritating product. It can feel a bit like going to a birthday party at the dentist's office. It's a rude statement to make about a talented standout who just beat his last finals opponent and has four more chances at a championship this year, but no team has a worse ratio of stressful watching to relief at victory.

This time they didn't win. The Liberty attributed the outcome to the execution, and they are not wrong. Stewart called a smoked layup at the end of overtime “one of my cleanest looks,” even though she had an even better chance at the free throw line to tie the game in regulation. This game would have felt stolen either way by its winner, but you can't call it anything other than a crushing defeat for New York. Minnesota's concession on the offensive glass and a series of turnovers on live balls in the first quarter resulted in the Liberty firing 90 shots to Minnesota's 71. New York led by as many as 18 points despite Ionescu and Stewart putting up a stink. Ionescu, the star of the Liberty's series win over Vegas, had a particularly bad night; Her closeout ultimately turned Williams' attempt to turn the game into something more.

I'm not sure either team has seen a fully realized version of the other yet, which should scare them both but excite us all. Courtney Vandersloot, an elder stateswoman who was part of both a magical title shot and an unthinkable playoff choke job, said after Thursday's game that it was the craziest game she had ever been a part of. For the first time in a long time, all WNBA fans had to lose their minds was basketball. All of the existential issues that Commissioner Cathy Engelbert addressed in her pre-game remarks about the state of the league were ignored: starting next year, the finals will be played as a best-of-seven series. After that you could only wish for more.