Before Friday’s game at Target Center, Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said the remaining four regular-season games will be treated like playoff contests for the eight teams locked into the WNBA playoffs.

Minnesota and New York then played the kind of game that backed that up.

In their first games since the league’s 17-day break for the FIBA World Cup ended, neither team led by more than single digits until the final seconds, it was physical throughout — 23 fouls were called on Minnesota, 22 on New York — superstars did their thing, and a couple of somewhat under-the-radar players came up clutch.

Breanna Stewart scored 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, four other Liberty players also reached double figures, and New York ended the game on a 13-4 run for a 93-81 win, its second victory in three tries over Minnesota this season.

Olivia Miles scored 20 points as Minnesota also had a quintet of players in double-digit scoring, but the Lynx (31-10) shot just 39.2% from the field in losing their third straight game.

“They made shots. Obviously, we did not, not as many as we needed to,” Reeve said. “I thought we had some easy opportunities. I think our confidence in the paint has to grow. Doesn’t feel very good for sure. Sucks to have the record (14-7) that we do at home … but tonight New York was better than us offensively for sure.”

Minnesota’s lead for the league’s best record and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs dropped to one game over Golden State. At 25-16, New York is tied with Dallas and Washington for the Nos. 6 position with three games left.

Minnesota, which needs to win two games to lock up the top seed for a postseason that begins Sept. 27, is at 10-win Connecticut Sunday afternoon before finishing with a home-and-home against Indiana starting Tuesday in Indianapolis.

Mostly a close game throughout Friday, the Lynx dared somebody other than Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu (17 points) to beat them. Marine Johannes stepped up.

She scored 10 straight Liberty points late in the third quarter to put New York up by five. A 3-point play by Miles put Minnesota up 69-67 early in the fourth quarter before Stewart and Pauline Astier (14 points) hit consecutive triples.

The Liberty did not trail again.

Minnesota made 7 of 19 fourth-quarter shots, including five misses from outside the arc. New York was 11 for 19 in the final 10 minutes, including 4 of 7 from deep.

“Great teams make great plays and we’ve been that team all year long, so get back to it,” said Kayla McBride, who finished with 16 points.

For the third straight game, an opponent was physical with Miles and put more pressure on the Rookie of the Year favorite.

“This is my first time doing this. Trying to understand they were calling it one way at the beginning of the season, and now it’s like free for all I guess. Trying to adjust back, and I have to do so a little bit more quickly,” said Miles, who had five turnovers. “It’s frustrating at times when you feel like you’re getting hounded everywhere and pushed off your spots and thrown on the ground and stuff. But ultimately we can’t rely on the refs to win us the game, and got to go strong, got to finish through contact. … I’m pretty confident that I’ll figure it out and be really strong for the next game.”

Napheesa Collier had 14 points and seven rebounds for the Lynx. Courtney Williams had 12 points and Natasha Howard 11.