“Everyone takes it to another level once you get to the play-offs and it takes so much more discipline and so much more strength to get to the finals,” Jones said. “We’ve been there, so we definitely know what it takes to do it.”

It took three years to get back. In retrospect, a long road can seem short. In the two seasons in between, the Sun lost twice in the semi-finals.

In 2020 they weren’t just one win away, they were four points away. A 66-63 loss to the Las Vegas Aces in a do-or-die Game 5 showed how small and how painful the margins are. In 2021 they were a series away, but that series wasn’t close. The Sky bounced against the sun in four games.

When they reached the final again in 2022, a title was within reach, but still far beyond their reach. They lost to the Aces in another four-game series.

They came close again last year when they fell to the Liberty in the semi-finals. They were even closer Tuesday night when they faced the Minnesota Lynx in Game 5, with another trip to the Finals on the line.

The Sun dug themselves a 13-point ditch in the first quarter, rising to 19 by halftime – the largest halftime deficit in a Game 5 in WNBA history – and as close as they came to scoring, a return to final was not possible. have been further away after an 88-77 loss ended their run at Target Center.

“Every round, every step, every game you win, you get closer to a championship,” said DeWanna Bonner, who scored 14 points and added eight rebounds. “But the closer you get, the harder it becomes. The better the teams you play in. It’s really hard to come back here.

“It’s really hard to get to this point in the season, so kudos to my team for doing that. But I don’t think we understood that every time we win a match, it gets harder and harder, and it gets harder and harder, until you reach your ultimate goal. Unfortunately, they wanted it more, but I’m still proud of us for getting this far.”

The Sun has been to four finals. The Lynx denied the sun a fifth voyage.

The only team that has done more without winning a title is the New York Liberty and they have a chance to change that after finishing the regular season with the league’s best record, dethroning defending champion Las Vegas Aces in the semi-finals and put themselves on the map. host the Lynx in Game 1 of the Finals on Thursday.

They have been to the semifinals (or Eastern Conference Finals) 11 times, including each of the past six seasons. Their 48 postseason wins as a franchise are the fourth most in WNBA history.

For 26 years they have been standing at the door, knocking, close and far at the same time.

“Every team is so different,” said head coach Stephanie White. ‘They’ve been there. That group (Bonner, Jones and Thomas) has been there. They’ve been to the final. When you get back there, sometimes it’s like you’re a step away, a shot away. Of course, the way a season works also requires a bit of luck. Unfortunately we had a good opportunity in front of us and we couldn’t take advantage of it.”

White has made two semi-final appearances in two seasons with the Sun. In 2015, she led the Indiana Fever to the finals. She listed the ingredients for a final round.

“Like anything, you need a bit of luck,” she says. “I have to stay healthy. You have to get warm at the right time.

The Sun came up empty on all fronts in Game 5. Luck and health betrayed them when Marina Mabrey stepped on a cameraman’s foot along the baseline and twisted her ankle in the second quarter. Mabrey played just 14 minutes (the fewest she played all season) and scored eight points on 3-of-5 shooting (2 for 4 from 3) before signaling to come out in the third quarter, while she stumbled to get up and down. .

As for getting hot, the solar attack couldn’t find the pilot light. The Lynx held them to 38.5 percent from the floor. Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve had the numbers ready for when her team defends this well.

“I almost guaranteed you we would play the defense we played,” Reeve said. “We are now at 180-(11) since 2011 when we held our opponents under 40 percent. To do that with this team was special and it was necessary to exclude them.”

On a night when Napheesa Collier gave the Lynx a double-double of 27 points, 11 rebounds and the Lynx shot 49.3 percent from the floor (34 of 69, 10 of 26 from 3), the Sun couldn’t summon enough offense. by pressing.

“It takes a lot to get to this point,” White said. “It takes a lot to get to the finals and win a championship. Every year every team is a little different. But the most important thing is consistency. You have to be able to come in the same direction every night. Certainly, the course of a season has its ups and downs and players have their ups and downs, but there has to be consistency and a tough mentality.”

“I think our core three, if you think of DB, AT and Breezy, have been there. They know what it takes, they know the hardness, they know the grind, the ebb and flow. They’ve led us to this point and I think it’s a really good opportunity for our young players and the players who haven’t been here before to see that and realize what it takes to take the next step.”

The Lynx are in the rarefied realm of the WNBA. They have won four titles – matched only by the Houston Comets, who were four-peat when the league was born in 1997, and the Seattle Storm, who spread their success over sixteen years, from their first title in 2004 to their most recent in 2020. They have been to six finals.

Tuesday’s win gave the Lynx their 48th playoff victory, the most in WNBA history.

Reeve was on the sidelines for all but one.

“Every championship team I coached – or every successful team – had a selflessness and chemistry at its core,” she said.

Despite winning 14 of their last 16 games to end the season, with the Liberty head and shoulders ahead of the league and the Aces chasing a three-peat, the Lynx were the championship-caliber team that apparently no one saw coming – except the Lynx.

“Their belief in themselves and each other is off the charts – and it never wavers,” Reeve said.

Julian Benbow can be reached at [email protected].