Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier missed her fifth game, and the Liberty’s Breanna Stewart is still sidelined with a injured knee.

Minnesota’s starters collectively had a poor offensive night Tuesday, yet the Lynx bench almost rescued the team. Starting guard Courtney Williams overcame a slow start to finish with a team-high

Breanna Stewart, the Liberty’s past MVP winner, and Napheesa Collier, the Lynx’s future MVP winner, again were sidelined due to injuries.

With less than a month left in the WNBA regular season, the Minnesota Lynx have a firm lock on the top seed in the playoffs.

Thus ends the series of Finals rematches between the Liberty and Lynx, who played to a five-game thriller last fall in what became New York's first postseason championship run. None of the four games featured Liberty star Breanna Stewart while her fellow UConn alum and Unrivaled co-founder Napheesa Collier missed the latter three.

The Liberty felt Tuesday night was a perfect opportunity to send a message — a 85-75 victory while shorthanded to avoid a regular-season sweep.

If the reigning champion New York Liberty and league-leading Minnesota Lynx didn't already have an official rivalry, they do now thanks to recent comments from Lynx guard Courtney Williams and Liberty coach Sandy Brondello.