Breanna Stewart Just Dropped 34 in the Playoffs. The WNBA Still Runs Through Its Veterans

Breanna Stewart had an injury designation on her knee before tip-off in Minneapolis. She then played 38 minutes, scored 34 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and handed out six assists, as the eighth-seeded New York Liberty beat top-seeded Minnesota 91-75 in Game 1 of their best-of-three first-round series.

She was two points short of the Liberty's franchise record for points in a playoff game. She also made 10 of 12 free throws, and that number ended up telling as much of the story as the 34.

The night the Lynx ran out of bodies

Minnesota went into the series at 33-11, the best record in the league. New York was 26-18. On paper that's a comfortable gap, and for a half the Lynx played like it. Then the Liberty outscored them 51-31 after the break, and the Lynx shot 34 percent over the last two quarters.

The turning point was fouls. Napheesa Collier, Natasha Howard and Nia Brodie all had four in the third quarter while trying to guard Stewart, and Collier and Howard both fouled out. Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve was blunt about it afterwards, saying her team did well in the first half and then just fouled, fouled, fouled.

Minnesota was called for 23 fouls to New York's 20, and the Liberty went 16 of 18 at the line to the Lynx's 10 of 13. Those aren't outrageous numbers on their own. They matter because the team on the wrong end of them was trying to slow down someone who'd already worked out where her mismatches were.

Sabrina Ionescu, who added 13 points, put it simply and called her teammate "a walking mismatch."

A rookie, a veteran and a quiet debut

The contrast was striking. Star rookie Olivia Miles, making her playoff debut for the Lynx, scored 11 points on 3-of-12 shooting with a single assist. Stewart, 32 and a two-time league MVP, became only the second player in WNBA history to lead or co-lead her team in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks in a playoff game.

That's not a coincidence. Playoff basketball tightens up. Possessions become more valuable, defences get sharper and the players who've seen every coverage before are the ones who look calm. Stewart said the Liberty had practised drawing two defenders and kicking the ball to the open shooter, and they executed it exactly as planned.

She wasn't the only veteran to make the same point that day. A'ja Wilson, 30, scored 38 as Las Vegas beat Indiana in Game 1, and she was also named the AP Player of the Year for the fourth time on the same afternoon.

Age or whistle?

Now the fair counterargument. Reeve's post-game comments suggest Minnesota beat itself as much as it was beaten. Fouling out two of your best players in a playoff game is an unforced problem, and it isn't obviously connected to age. A coach could just as easily say the Lynx defended badly.

But that's exactly the point. Drawing fouls is a skill, and it's a skill that improves with experience. Stewart put her body in the right places, forced defenders to make decisions and got to the line 12 times. That isn't luck.

So the answer to whether the WNBA still runs through its veterans is probably yes, at least at playoff time. The league is getting younger and deeper, with rookies like Miles showing up ready to contribute. But when the games get tight, the players who've done this before still have an edge that can't be measured in talent alone.

The series isn't over. New York can close it out on Tuesday in Brooklyn, and Minnesota is 0-3 in franchise history when it loses Game 1 of a best-of-three. The Lynx have been the best team all year, though, and nobody should write them off yet.

Is Stewart's night a story about age and experience, or just a very good player benefiting from a team that fouled too much?