WNBA Playoffs: Phoenix Mercury Rally Past Minnesota Lynx Under Tibbetts’ Leadership

Nate Tibbetts was left "fired up" after his Phoenix Mercury team rose from the ashes to defeat the Minnesota Lynx in a thrilling WNBA playoff contest.

The Mercury trailed 48-32 at halftime on Tuesday, with the top-seeded Lynx well on their way to taking a 2-0 lead in the series.

Yet Phoenix turned the game on its head in the second half, posting the third-largest comeback in WNBA postseason history to win 89-83 in overtime.

Having been down by 20 at one stage, Phoenix's fightback also equalled the largest comeback in a road game in the playoffs, matching the effort of the Chicago Sky 2014 team against the Atlanta Dream.

And the best-of-five series will now head to Arizona finely poised at 1-1.

"Just pride, toughness, grit," Mercury coach Tibbetts said, as quoted by ESPN.

"I couldn't be more proud of our group for doing that. I'm fired up. Phoenix is going to be rocking on Friday and Sunday (for Games 3 and 4)."

Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve offered few excuses for her team's collapse.

"Nobody said this stuff was gonna be easy," she said.

"We lost our way. We didn't respond. Then, when we needed to go get buckets and we had good opportunities, we weren't strong enough.

"We weren't tough enough. And they ripped the game from us."

Napheesa Collier, who missed a jump shot at the buzzer for Minnesota, echoed Reeve's sentiment.

"They came out really aggressive, especially in transition," she said, having led the Lynx with 24 points on her 29th birthday.

"We had a lot of turnovers, so cutting back on that would have been a huge difference.

"I think we beat ourselves. Unforced turnovers, not taking care of the ball when they were pressuring us.

"Just keeping our composure in those situations is huge. Definitely, it's frustrating, but it's a series. So we need to go to Phoenix and take care of business."