BROOKLYN— The New York Liberty defeated both the Minnesota Lynx and Déjà Vu in Game 2 of the 2024 WNBA Finals.

Behind a dominant two-way performance from Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, the Liberty evened the best-of-five series at one game each with an 80-66 victory at Barclays Center on Sunday afternoon. Laney-Hamilton scored 20 points, leading all New Yorkers except Breanna Stewart, who had 21 and set a WNBA Finals single-game record with seven steals.

It was the first time since July 6 that it reached a double decade. On defense, she partially led the Liberty’s final shutdown against Minnesota, and was seen keeping the Lynx off the field in the final 3:40 minutes. For now, it’s a strong, if unemotional, highlight of a season often plagued by injuries. The illness followed her into the postseason and caused some rapid changes, but she proved resilient enough to last nearly 32 minutes of action.

Unlike Thursday’s opening game, the Liberty managed to stay ahead consistently and never fall behind, even though Minnesota came within two points at numerous stages of the contest. While they’ve lost home-field advantage, the Liberty are back in the hunt for their first postseason championship and are just two wins away from such promotion.

The defense dominated the day after an offensive explosion in the opening period, as neither team reached 20 points in the final three games. Sabrina Ionescu shot just twice from the field in the final half of the game, but she scored 12 on 5 of 7 in the first frame to help build a 31-21 lead.

From there, New York fended off several Minnesota turnovers that eroded their lead, which peaked at 17. Down the home stretch, the Lynx once again used Courtney Williams’ commanding presence to erase a deficit as the veteran flirted with a three-double with 15 points, eight assists and six rebounds. But the Liberty made it to the final dozen with Leonie Fiebich serving a de facto dagger with an open triple, scoring her only goal of the competition.

In this varied final performance, four different players contributed to the dominant play, capped by Jones, who intercepted a Williams pass and converted it into the final double, ending the game with 14 points and nine rebounds. Fittingly, things culminated with a Laney Hamilton triple that gave her the elusive 20.

Minnesota fell 34-27 in the loss, losing just its second game in six meetings with the Liberty this season. Despite picking up four fouls, Napheesa Collier paced the Lynx with 16 points (as well as half of the visitors’ eight steals) on 7 of 12 from the field, although she struggled with foul trouble early in the second half.

Game 3 of the series will be played Wednesday night in Minnesota (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).

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