DETROIT -- Twenty-four hours after the WUSA ceased operations, the WNBA had one of its biggest days in league history.

A sellout-crowd of 22,076 attended Game 3 of the WNBA Finals at the Palace of Auburn Hills on Tuesday, making the decisive match between Detroit and Los Angeles the highest-attended game in WNBA history.

Prior to Tuesday, the all-time single-game attendance mark was 20,674, set by the Washington Mystics on four separate occasions, twice in 1998 and twice in 1999, during regular-season play.

The best-attended playoffs or WNBA Finals game previously was 19,563, which was set during Game 1 of the 2000 WNBA Finals at Madison Square Garden (Houston at New York).

For the 14 teams in the WNBA, total attendance increased over last year with 2,101,653 fans attending games this season, the fourth straight year league attendance has topped 2 million.