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All season long the Minnesota Lynx and Los Angeles Sparks have been the best two teams in the WNBA.Thanks to the new playoff format, the pair of Western Conference teams will meet in the WNBA Finals. Game 1 is Sunday.A year ago these two powerhouses would have played in the conference finals with the winner being a huge favorite to go on and win the championship. The Western Conference champion has won the leagues title in six of the last seven years.Its going to be a great matchup, Minnesota forward Maya Moore said. I think the Sparks and the Lynx have shown that were the best two teams in the league. There have been some really fun games to play in and to watch during the regular season. I think youre going to see the best of the best at their best for a good series.Minnesota is trying to win its second straight title and fourth in the last six year. The Lynx would be the first repeat champion since Los Angeles did it in 2001 and 2002. A win by the Sparks would be their first title since then and the first for Candace Parker.Yeah, it has hit me. I think Ive learned to appreciate it and absorb the moment and to not take it for granted, Parker said. Thats the biggest thing, just realizing that it is an opportunity and while youre here focused on business, you can still understand that youre here and youve worked really hard to get here.Here are some things to look for in the WNBA Finals:STAR POWER: Each team has a plethora of talent. Los Angeles is led by league MVP Nneka Ogwumike and Parker. Ogwumike had an incredible season, shooting a league-best 66.5 percent from the field, the second highest mark ever. She averaged a career-best 19.7 points and 9.1 rebounds to help. Parker had another great year and is in the finals for the first time in her career.On the other side, Minnesota has an Olympic quartet of Moore, Lindsay Whalen, Sylvia Fowles and Seimone Augustus. The group helped lead the U.S. to a sixth consecutive gold medal and now has a chance to win another title.Both Parker and Moore have excelled when playing each other in the postseason. In five games, four won by Minnesota, Moore averaged 24 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists. Parker had 25.4 points, 11.6 rebounds and 4.6 assists.GOING FOR FOUR: A championship would give Minnesota four, matching the Lynx with Houston for the most titles all-time in league history. The Comets won the first four championships in league history, but never made it back after 2000. The franchise folded after the 2008 season.TIP-INS: The road team won all three games during the regular season. ... Minnesotas coach Cheryl Reeve won the leagues coach of the year award. Los Angeles coach Brian Agler was the AP coach of the year. ... Sylvia Fowles was the consensus defensive player of the year and Jantel Lavender the sixth woman winner.20 AND COUNTING: The leagues 20th season has been stellar with all the metrics trending in the right direction. Attendance was up nearly 5 percent. So were merchandise sales, digital clicks and social media connection.QUOTABLE: Were kind of meeting our match, if you will, Reeve said. How we get things done is a little different. But both teams can score, both can defend. Its going to be a fight. Lance McCullers Jersey . The All-Pro lineman got the leg bent under him while trying to make a tackle during the first half of a 22-20 overtime loss at Miami on Thursday night. The medical staff initially thought hed torn the ligament, and the test a day later in Cincinnati confirmed it. Jimmy Wynn Jersey . LOUIS -- Mike Smith is used to facing plenty of shots, so this was nothing new. http://www.baseballastrosproshop.com/alex-bregman-astros-jersey/ . -- Kyrie Irvings last-minute 3-pointer helped seal another victory for Cleveland -- and the Cavaliers longest winning streak since LeBron James left. Josh Reddick Jersey . PETERSBURG, Fla. Hector Rondon Astros Jersey . He said Tuesday thats a big reason why he is now the new coach of the Tennessee Titans. Whisenhunt said he hit it off quickly with Ruston Webster when interviewing for the job Friday night. Go inside the numbers and matchups that will decide Monday nights game, and then vote for which team will win at the bottom of the page.What we learned in Game 2Josh Tomlin was very good, Andrew Miller struck out five of the six batters he faced, and Cody Allen threw a 1-2-3 ninth as the Indians beat the Blue Jays 2-1, taking the first two games. Indians pitchers have 25 strikeouts in the first two games.?-- David SchoenfieldInside the pitching matchupWhen?Marcus Stroman?is on the mound:?Stroman started the wild-card game against the Orioles, giving up two runs in six innings with six strikeouts and no walks, but didnt start in the division series sweep of the Rangers. Stroman is fun to watch, a short righty with a six-pitch repertoire. He has gone to his sinker and cutter more this year, throwing those pitches more than 50 percent of the time, while mixing in his fastball, curve, slider and changeup. His game is all about keeping the ball down and getting grounders -- he had the highest ground ball rate of any qualified starter in the majors. He has been very good his past 14 starts, posting a 3.23 ERA and giving up eight home runs in 89? innings.Against the Orioles, Stroman threw 44 percent cutters and 32 percent sinkers, not throwing a single four-seam fastball. He had a similar game plan against the Indians back in August, throwing just one fastball against them in 100 pitches. During the season he threw his fastball 22 percent of the time, but hes at his best when the sinker is working or the cutter gets in on lefties. --?SchoenfieldWhen?Trevor Bauer?is on the mound:?Bauer was scheduled to start Game 2 before cutting his right pinkie finger fixing his drone, requiring stitches and forcing the Indians to push him back to this game. Yes, this never happened to Sandy Koufax or Bob Gibson. As Buster Olney wrote the other day, aside from how Bauer will be able to pitch with the stitches, another issue that could potentially pop up is if the stitches start bleeding and blood gets on the ball and whether the umpires will view that as a foreign substance.The good news for the Indians is that Bauer wont need to go deep into the game. Outside of Andrew Miller and Cody Allen, the bullpen has barely been used, with Bryan Shaw pitching 2 2/3 innings and Dan Otero one inning. Well almost certainly see Otero, who had a 1.53 ERA, and perhaps Zach McAllister and Jeff Manship.As for Bauer, he had one hot streak through early July, but finished with a 4.26 ERA, including 6.39 in September. He went 4 2/3 innings in his playoff start against the Red Sox, finishing with six strikeouts and no walks but serving up two home runs on a night the ball was flying at Progressive Field -- as it often does. Bauer allowed 15 of his 20 home runs at home, although the ball also tends to fly out at Roogers Centre.ddddddddddddBauer works off a fastball that averages 93.2 mph, preferring to work middle-away to both lefties and righties. He works up in the zone with the fastball, which led to a .447 slugging percentage allowed on the pitch. You know Blue Jays hitters will be looking to feast off some of those high fastballs. He adds a curveball, cutter and changeup, with the curveball his go-to wipeout pitch -- batters hit .134/.145/.221 with a 45 percent strikeout rate against it.Player in the spotlightJose Bautista. Hes hitless in his past 14 at-bats after starting the postseason with home runs his first two games. He hit just .223 against fastballs this year so lets see if Bauer and the bullpen challenge him with hard stuff. -- SchoenfieldDid you know ...Bauer faced the Blue Jays twice in the regular season, holding Toronto to a .476 OPS against his fastball, his lowest OPS against any team that he faced multiple times. Just 3.2 percent of his fastballs were hard-hit by the Blue Jays, and they missed on 28 percent of those pitches, all his best marks. -- ESPN Stats & InformationWhat will decide Monday nights gameBauer getting the Blue Jays to chase breaking stuff. Bauer threw just 78 pitches in his only start this postseason, 27 of which (35 percent) were breaking balls. Bauer used his breaking ball on fewer than 20 percent of pitches during the regular season. Despite the small sample size in the postseason, batters chased 50 percent (8 of 16) of his breaking balls outside the strike zone. Will Bauer adjust his approach against the Blue Jays? Toronto swung at 26 percent of breaking balls outside the strike zone during the regular season, the lowest chase rate in the majors against the pitch. -- ESPN Stats & InformationChoosing sides: Who will win?? Torontos slug-happy lineup was a no-show during the two games in Cleveland, but the Blue Jays will be reinvigorated by a return to Rogers Centre. The Stroman-Bauer matchup is advantageous for Toronto, and the Jays offense will do enough to grind out a win and climb back in the series. -- Jerry CrasnickThe Blue Jays will finally start hitting Monday night. They always hit better at Rogers Centre and against the droned Bauer, it probably will continue to be that way. Toronto has too good of an offense to stay down for too much longer. I think they will get to Bauer and hand the Indians their first loss of the postseason. -- Andrew MarchandWhere the series standsOnly one team -- the 2004 Red Sox -- has rallied from a 3-0 series deficit, so this one certainly has a must-win feel to it for the Blue Jays, especially with Terry Francona threatening to bring Corey Kluber back in Game 4.?--?Schoenfield ' ' '