NEW YORK – It wasn’t just that the No. 1 seed New York Liberty lost the opening game of the WNBA Finals at home in heartbreaking fashion. It felt like they had lost it multiple times.

Credit the Minnesota Lynx for never giving up. But in the stunned aftermath of a 95-93 overtime loss Thursday at Barclays Center, the Liberty were still trying to figure out how it all happened.

Leading by as much as 18 in the match and 15 with 5 minutes and 20 seconds left in regulation, the Liberty appeared to be in good control. Then the comeback began for the Lynx, and the disaster began for the Liberty.

New York was outscored 18-3 in the final five minutes. The Liberty surrendered the lead with 5.1 seconds left on — of all things — a four-point play by Lynx guard Courtney Williams after Minnesota grabbed an offensive rebound off her miss.

Double gut punch.

“I definitely shouldn’t have fouled her,” New York’s Sabrina Ionescu said of clipping Williams on a 3-pointer that whizzed. “But it’s like, if we get (that) rebound, we win the game. There are so many moments like that.”

Williams put the Lynx up 84-83, but the roller coaster was far from over.

With 3.9 seconds left, Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier knocked the ball away from New York’s Breanna Stewart, but neither referee got a clear view of the play. So a jump ball was called. Neither team had a timeout to make a challenge, crew chief Isaac Barnett explained to a media pool reporter after Thursday’s game.

Williams was then called for a jump ball violation, and possession went to the Liberty. Collier, the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year this season, then blocked Stewart’s shot out of bounds.

On the next play, Collier was called for a foul on Stewart, giving the Liberty a chance to likely win the game at the line with 0.8 seconds left in regulation. The Lynx’s spirited rally seemed to fall just short.

The play received a review, giving Stewart — a career shooter with an 83.6% free throw rate — more time to think.

“You just focus on … making the first. Making the first. Making the first,” said Stewart, who did just that to tie the score. “And then the second one, same thing. It’s when you don’t want to think about anything else.

“It’s definitely a pain to miss.”

But she did, then grimaced in frustration. Still, Liberty had to work overtime to redeem itself. And once again, Stewart — a two-time MVP who won two WNBA championships with the Seattle Storm before joining the Liberty last year — had a chance to win the game.

In the final 33 seconds of overtime, the Liberty got two steals and scored — one by Ionescu and the other by Jonquel Jones — to set the score. The sold-out crowd, which had gone through so many emotions at that moment, went wild.

But Collier, the MVP runner-up known for her cool stoicism on the court, still had a dagger to throw at the Liberty. Her 12-foot jumper with 8.1 seconds left put Minnesota back on top.

“These people I’m around,” Williams said in her first season with Minnesota after signing as a free agent, “we believe in each other so much.”

Yet Freedom would suffer one last painful moment. Stewart got the ball and drove in from the left side, throwing the ball up with her right hand for a shot she’s probably made thousands of times. But she missed this one.

“I probably had one of my cleanest looks. I didn’t make it,” Stewart said. “I want to take these pictures.”

Afterward, the Liberty players talked about still learning things even though Thursday was their 48th game of the season, including the Commissioner’s Cup final in June, which they also lost to Minnesota. The Liberty consoled each other in the locker room, saying it was disappointing, but just one game in a best-of-five series.

But it felt like more.

“You have to be mentally strong and resilient,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. “And we were that team.”