On Sunday night in Phoenix, the Minnesota Lynx saw their season come to a close in Game 4 of the semifinals round, dropping the best-of-five series 3-1 at the hands of the Phoenix Mercury.
Though that game and night ended in disappointment, Minnesota concluded the season by putting together one of the best campaigns in franchise history and a year that ranks right up there as one of the best regular season performances in WNBA history. There are plenty of positives to take away from the 2025 Lynx season.
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But when it’s all said and done, the Lynx didn’t get it done as they hoped. They didn’t end the season as the last team standing with the championship trophy at midcourt and the confetti falling from the rafters like we’ve seen four times in franchise history.
And to put salt in the wound of falling short of a championship, it’s another year that ended with the question of “what if?” when it comes to unforeseen circumstances occurring when it matters most in the postseason.
“To be close two years in a row and hit adverse situations each and every time. For the people that you love — your sisters, your family — s**t f***ing hurts,” Kayla McBride said after the season-ending loss in Game 4. “It’s hard, especially when you lay everything out there.”
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The Season That Was
During the record-long 44-game regular season, Minnesota put together one of the best campaigns we’ve ever seen. Yes, that doesn’t really matter all that much when it doesn’t result in a championship, but it’s worth reflecting on and shining a light on the dominance the Lynx displayed all summer long.
For starters, Minnesota finished the regular season with a record of 34-10, setting a franchise record for wins in a season while tying the 2023 Las Vegas Aces for most wins in a regular season in WNBA history.
On top of that, the Lynx led the league in numerous statistical categories. They led the WNBA in scoring (86.1 points per game), field goal percentage (47.2%), three-point percentage (37.8%), offensive rating (109.5), defensive rating (97.5), net rating (12.1), assists (23.3) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.8), while ranking second in steals (8.2) and true shooting percentage (57.2%).
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“Just amazing people,” Williams said of the Lynx. “It makes it easy to come to work. It makes it easy to play hard for the person you’re out there battling with. That’s been our MO all season. Definitely happy to play with this group of people for sure.”
Individually, Minnesota saw numerous standout performances from its players on the court.
Napheesa Collier had an MVP caliber of season — finishing second in voting — while joining the exclusive 50/40/90 club (shooting 50% from the field, 40% from three and 90% from the free throw line), just the second player in WNBA history to do so.
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Alanna Smith was a lockdown defender all season long, earning Co-Defensive Player of the Year honors alongside Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson.
Natisha Hiedeman and Jessica Shepard were incredibly valuable off Minnesota’s bench, with Hiedeman putting together her best season as a Lynx to finish second in Sixth Player of the Year voting and Shepard — who finished third in Sixth Player of the Year voting — having a strong season in her return after sitting out the 2024 campaign.
Collier, Kayla McBride and Courtney Williams earned All-Star honors for their play in the first half of the season, with all three making up a strong Big Three for Minnesota.
The Lynx were the best team all season long, and for the most part escaped adversity such as injuries or other outside factors like other teams faced — that is, until the postseason.
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“It was a joy,” Williams said of the season. “I don’t look at the season and say ‘this is hard because we have a target on our back.’ That’s what we wanted. We got in the gym and we stacked our days. We got hit with that injury bug (in the playoffs) and it’s just hard. … Shoutout to us for not giving up.”
And off the court, we haven’t even begun to talk about the StudBudz and the phenomenon that Williams and Hiedeman created across the WNBA and throughout the sports world.
All of that remarkable success considered, it didn’t translate to the playoffs at the end of the day, which is the most important thing. And resulted in Minnesota’s season coming to an end earlier than hoped once again.
What If?
For the Lynx, the “what if’s” began last year with the heartbreak of a 2024 WNBA Finals loss that felt to many inside of the organization and among its fan base as though it was taken away from Minnesota — or at least was a championship the Lynx should have won.
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That moment, mixed with the numerous other moments notably throughout playoff history, have permanently haunted the Lynx and their fans. And the 2025 postseason brought those memories flooding back.
Phoenix ended up being the better team than Minnesota — which was shorthanded in the series — resulting in the Mercury moving on and the Lynx going home. You have to credit the Mercury for the performance they put together against the top team in the league, and now they get the chance to bring it home in the WNBA Finals.
But for the Lynx and their fans, it feels as though it’s another season of asking “what could have been?” and “what if?”
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What if Karlie Samuelson didn’t get hurt during the season?
What if DiJonai Carrington would have been healthy in the playoffs?
What if Napheesa Collier never got hurt and Cheryl Reeve was on the sidelines for the season-ending Game 4 loss?
What if officiating wasn’t such a big factor and frustration for every team this season and postseason?
What if officiating wasn’t — again — one of the things we will remember and talk about from this series?
What if all of that didn’t take place? Would we still be talking about Minnesota in the playoffs and getting ready for the WNBA Finals? Would we still be talking about this team fighting for its fifth championship?
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Minnesota has, unfortunately, become accustomed to see its season come to a close with some form of controversy around it. In 2024, it was the way the Finals ended. In 2025, it was what took place in Game 3 and if a different outcome could have swayed the series back in Minnesota’s favor.
At the end of both seasons, which resulted in coming up short of a WNBA title, the Lynx felt as though they weren’t able to properly decide a series with their play on the court. That’s where the “what if?” comes in the most in 2025 — that outside factors arguably played a large role in deciding Minnesota’s fate once again.
“It’s the people. It’s the people you go to work with every day. I’ve been here five years, and to be so close, you just want it for the people around you. You want it for the people that grind with you every single day,” an emotional McBride said after the Game 4 loss. “In pro sports, it doesn’t get any better than what we have in that locker room. That’s why I’m emotional, because we lay it out for each other. It’s never about anything else than each other. When it’s like that every day, it builds up.”
“It’s tough, but I wouldn’t trade that locker room for anything. I would feel like this 100 times over to be with the people I’ve been with,” McBride continued. “That’s why it’s painful, because you just want it to keep going.”
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Regardless of the adversity faced at the end of the season, regardless of the questions that many still have about how things ended in the semifinals (and even the Finals the year before), Minnesota has plenty to look back on and shed a positive light upon from the 2025 campaign.
That isn’t an easy thing for the Lynx to think about fresh off of a season-ending loss Sunday night, but Minnesota has a lot to be proud of. And it has the pieces in place to try and run it back and put together an even better season in 2026.
