Liberty vs. Lynx: Breanna Stewart Drops 36, Making Cheryl Reeve Wait for the WNBA Regular-Season Wins Record

Cheryl Reeve walked into Barclays Center one win away from standing alone atop the WNBA's career list for regular-season coaching victories. Breanna Stewart had other plans, and she made them clear almost immediately: seven shots, seven makes, 16 points, one quarter.

Stewart finished with a season-high 36, and the New York Liberty beat the Minnesota Lynx 99-86 on Friday night, leaving Reeve tied with Mike Thibault at 379 for at least one more weekend. Three days after winning the Commissioner's Cup, New York played like a team that had very much enjoyed the experience.

Stewart Starts It, Everybody Else Piles On

New York went on a 17-5 run in the middle of the first quarter and got as far as 26-14 before Minnesota closed the period with eight straight to make it 26-22. The Lynx's second 8-0 burst tied it at 36 early in the second, and they had pulled ahead 47-46 with 3:32 left in the half. For most of the first half this was the shootout everyone in the crowd of 15,345 came for, a group that included NBA Hall of Famer Yao Ming.

The second half was another matter. New York's lead hit 64-49 with 7:45 left in the third, the end of a 9-0 run that had started late in the second. Minnesota shot 7-of-20 in the quarter, according to the Liberty, and trailed 78-65 going to the fourth. Then New York opened the final period on a 7-3 spurt, finished by Jonquel Jones' 3, to make it 85-68. The closest the Lynx got after that was 12, and Leonie Fiebich's 23-footer with 52.7 left ended any lingering ideas about a miracle.

The Last 3:32 of the Half

Minnesota had the lead and the momentum, and then New York took both. Jones started a 13-2 closing run with a three-point play, and Pauline Astier capped it with a running layup just before the horn, sending the Liberty to the locker room up 59-49. Astier scored 10 in that quarter, the first double-digit period of her career, per the team.

The numbers at the break were silly: 59 points on 22-of-34 shooting, and no Lynx opponent had topped either figure in a half all season, the Liberty say. That stretch turned a one-point deficit into a double-digit lead, and Minnesota spent the rest of the night paying interest on it.

Stewart's Numbers, With Footnotes

Stewart went 14-of-19 from the field, 2-of-4 from 3 and 6-of-6 at the line, with seven rebounds and two blocks. She had 16 in the first quarter, just two more in the second, then 18 after halftime, so this was less a hot streak than a full-night occupation. The Liberty's notes say the 36 tied for the 10th-highest scoring game in franchise history, moved her past Angel McCoughtry into third place in WNBA history for 30-point games, and left her level with Tina Charles for third in 25-point games. That's a lot of footnotes for one Friday.

Jones was nearly as good in a different way, with 14 points, 15 rebounds and five assists. That was the 23rd 15-rebound game of her career, level with Lisa Leslie for sixth in WNBA history, the team says. Twelve of those boards came on the defensive end, which mattered against a Lynx team that kept getting extra cracks. Sabrina Ionescu scored 17 with six assists, rookie Astier had 14 on 5-of-6 shooting with six more assists, and Fiebich added 13 with three 3s, four assists and three steals. All five starters finished in double figures and made at least five field goals apiece, and the bench chipped in just five points, all from Han Xu, though Marine Johannes did hand out five assists without scoring. Four Liberty players had at least five assists, something the team says has happened only nine times in franchise history.

Kayla McBride led Minnesota with 18 on 4-of-9 from 3, Courtney Williams added 16, and Olivia Miles scored 14 but needed 16 shots to get there. Natasha Howard finished with seven points and a minus-23. The Lynx remain without Napheesa Collier, out all season after surgery on both ankles, and Dorka Juhasz, who has a right foot injury, though both have been practicing this week. New York was short-handed too, with Satou Sabally in concussion protocol.

Stats That Matter

• 58.1 percent: New York's shooting on 36-of-62, the best by any Lynx opponent so far in 2026, according to the Liberty.
• 85-62: Minnesota's edge in field-goal attempts. The Lynx grabbed 16 offensive rebounds, turned it over only eight times against New York's 17, won the points-off-turnovers battle 17-10, and still lost by 13.
• 10-2: New York on the fast break. The Lynx had no fast-break points at all before halftime.
• 17-of-18: The Liberty at the line, against 8-of-9 for Minnesota.

What It Means

New York is 13-8 and 7-4 at home, and this ended a two-game regular-season slide after losses at Seattle and Golden State. Dallas visits on Tuesday.

Minnesota is 15-5 with a 9-2 road mark, and its two-game winning streak is gone. Friday was just the fifth loss of the season for a team still missing its star, which is not exactly a crisis. Reeve tied Thibault with last Sunday's 85-77 win at Dallas, so she has now had one shot at the record and missed. The next one comes Monday at home against Connecticut, which also happens to be 13 years to the day since Thibault passed Van Chancellor to take the mark himself.

Reschedule the Coronation

Records like this one tend to arrive on their own timetable, and this one will still be sitting there on Monday. Stewart just made sure the party didn't happen in her building, three days after her team got to throw one of its own. Consider the invitation returned to sender, with 36 points stapled to it.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press and the New York Liberty.