Seattle advances to WNBA Finals
BRADENTON, Fla. — Breanna Stewart put forth a career effort Sunday to get the Seattle Storm back to the WNBA Finals.
Stewart scored a career playoff-high 31 points — tying Seattle’s franchise playoff record — and Sue Bird had 16 points and nine assists as the Storm beat Minnesota 92-71 to sweep the Lynx and advance to the championship round for the second time in three seasons.
The Storm won the 2018 title.
“It’s an amazing feeling to be back,” Stewart said. “Be back with Seattle and be back in the finals, and I can’t wait for Game 1 Friday.”
Stewart, who missed all of last season while recovering from a torn Achilles’ tendon, added six rebounds, seven assists, three steals and two blocks. Mercedes Russell tied her season high with 10 points for the second-seeded Storm.
Seatle will play top-seeded Las Vegas or No. 7 seed Connecticut in the Finals, which begin Friday. Seattle lost both regular season matchups with Las Vegas — including an 86-84 loss in the regular season finale — and won its two regular season games against Connecticut by an average of 18 points.
Bird and Stewart combined to score or assist on 13 points during a 17-0 run that gave Seattle a 24-8 lead when Sami Whitcomb made a layup with 54.2 seconds left in the first quarter. Stewart made a short jumper to push the Storm’s lead to 18 points with 1:05 left in the first half but Minnesota scored 16 of the next 21 points, including six by Crystal Dangerfield and two 3-pointers by Odyssey Sims, to make it 48-41 about three minutes into the third quarter.
Stewart responded with back-to-back layups and, after Jewell Loyd made another layup, Stewart converted a three-point play and then hit a 3 in a 12-0 run that made it 60-41 about four minutes later.
Minnesota trailed by double...