MINNESOTA LYNX

Lynx stay unbeaten with second-half surge to down Valkyries

Field Level Media — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 03:11:18 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO — Natisha Hiedeman scored all eight of her points in two second-half runs, Napheesa Collier returned from a night off with a game-high 24 points and the Minnesota Lynx surged past the host Golden State Valkyries 86-75 on Sunday night.

Returning from a sore knee, Collier completed her third consecutive double-double with a season-high-tying 11 rebounds, and Courtney Williams added 20 points for Minnesota, which remained unbeaten through seven games.

Veronica Burton had a team-high 21 points and Kate Martin a career-high 14 for Golden State, which led by one at halftime and retained a 56-53 advantage after Kayla Thornton's interior hoop in the third minute of the third period.

But the Lynx, who made the WNBA finals last season, took charge from there, starting with a 14-2 burst that featured 3-pointers from Hiedeman, Williams and Bridget Carleton.

Attempting to avoid a third consecutive loss, the Valkyries hung within 68-60 through quarter's end, before Hiedeman had two hoops -- one that she turned into a three-point play -- and Collier added a basket in a 7-0 flurry to open the fourth period that broke the game open at 75-60.

Williams also found time for five rebounds and a team-high five assists. Her three 3-pointers in seven attempts helped Minnesota outscore the hosts 33-27 from beyond the arc despite taking eight fewer attempts.

Kayla McBride chipped in with 16 points and six rebounds, while Carleton had 12 points for the Lynx, who completed a two-game Western sweep after dispatching the Phoenix Mercury on Friday without Collier.

The Lynx and Valkyries were meeting for the first time.

Thornton finished with 11 points and a team-high seven rebounds for Golden State, which had played the defending-champion New York Liberty on the road in its two previous games.

Julie Vanloo dished off a team-high four assists and swiped two steals for the Valkyries, an expansion team that has sold out all three of its home games at the spacious Chase Center, home of the Golden State Warriors.

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Lynx spoil Kelsey Plum's home debut with victory over Sparx

Field Level Media — Mon, 19 May 2025 01:03:21 GMT

LOS ANGELES — Napheesa Collier scored 23 points on 10-for-18 shooting, and the Minnesota Lynx pulled away for an 89-75 win over the host Los Angeles Sparks on Sunday evening.

Alanna Smith finished with 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting for Minnesota, which won its second straight road game to start the season. Courtney Williams posted a double-double with 13 points and 10 assists, and Jessica Shepard added her own double-double off the bench with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Azura Stevens scored 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting to lead Los Angeles. Dearica Hamby scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Kelsey Plum finished with 18 points in her home debut with the Sparks.

Minnesota shot 47.9 percent (34 of 71) overall and 40 percent (10 of 25) from beyond the arc. Los Angeles shot 40 percent (24 of 60) from the field and 34.6 percent (9 of 26) from 3-point range.

The Lynx outscored the Sparks 43-30 in the second half to secure the victory.

Minnesota started the third quarter on a 9-2 run to pull ahead 55-47. That included a 3-pointer by Williams, a layup by Collier and back-to-back baskets by Bridget Carleton and Smith.

Natisha Hiedeman made a pair of free throws to put the Lynx on top 70-62 in the final minute of the third quarter.

The Lynx held off the Sparks the rest of the way, outscoring them 19-13 during the fourth quarter.

Minnesota led 46-45 at the half. Collier led all scorers with 17 points at the break.

The Lynx jumped to a 30-25 lead at the end of the first quarter. Hiedeman drove for a floating jump shot with three seconds left to make it a five-point edge.

The Sparks outscored the Lynx 20-16 in the second quarter to cut the deficit to one. Los Angeles scored the final five points of the first half thanks to a 3-pointer by Plum and a jump shot by Hamby.

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Napheesa Collier continues to lift Lynx in every way possible

Jace Frederick / St. Paul Pioneer Press — Tue, 19 Sep 2023 22:34:46 GMT

Cheryl Reeve did not know what the result of Game 2 of the WNBA playoffs series on Sunday in Connecticut was going to be. But the Lynx coach and general manager was sure of one thing: Napheesa Collier was going to play well.

Yes, that’s a sturdy limb to stand on, but Reeve was indeed correct, as Collier went off for 26 points, 13 rebounds, two steals and a block to power the Lynx to an upset victory that forced a decisive Game 3 in Minnesota on Wednesday to determine the outcome of the first-round series.

The production came all while pushing through a pinched nerve that only briefly sidelined her in the game. That’s what the 26-year-old does.

The main reason for Reeve’s confidence in Collier is simple.

“She’s awfully good,” the coach said. “Napheesa Collier is a helluva basketball player. So you can’t hold those kinds of players down.”

But also, when adversity rings, Collier is the first to answer the call. That, Reeve noted, is “who Phee is.”

“Since the first time she stepped foot into a Lynx gym, what we learned about her is just her emotional maturity,” Reeve said. “She’s the same all the time, whether we’re in difficult moments, great moments, I’m yelling at her, I’m not yelling at her, whatever it is, she’s the same.”

Reeve once thanked Collier’s parents for the job they did in raising the star forward. The Lynx certainly have needed every bit of what Collier has offered up this season.

The former No. 6 overall draft pick was a second-team All-WNBA player during the bubble season, but she entered a higher stratosphere this summer. Collier averaged 21.5 points and 8.5 rebounds while entering the MVP conversation. In the process, she elevated a Lynx team many assumed would “tank” at the season’s outset to now being one win away from the WNBA semifinals.

She did that with her play, yes, but also with her leadership. Minnesota starts two rookies. It has others handling larger roles than they’ve been accustomed to at this level. Collier, along with the help of sidekick Kayla McBride, has guided everyone along throughout the season, piloting the Lynx through sometimes turbulent airwaves, including an 0-6 start this season.

Every time, the Lynx have emerged out the other side as a better team. The same was true in Game 2 of this first-round series. A big reason for that, again, was Collier, who rebounded from a 12-point showing in Game 1 to dominate Minnesota’s elimination game. After that Game 1 outing, Reeve surmised Collier would be the one who most badly wanted to get back on the court. The coach wasn’t shy about noting the Lynx needed more from Collier, and Collier delivered.

Collier is the type of leader — and best player — from which you can expect and demand much. No one was more disappointed in her playoff opener than Collier herself.

“I know what my job is, and when you feel like you didn’t do your job and you let your team down, of course you want to go out there and prove yourself to them and to yourself again,” Collier said. “So I wanted to get out there again.”

With Sylvia Fowles retired, this has been Collier’s first season as the Lynx’s true alpha. It’s a role that inherently comes with enough pressure to reduce some to rubble. But it’s only made Collier better.

“I think just coming in with the mentality that my role is a little bit different — it’s a little bit bigger this year,” Collier said. “And that’s a great responsibility to have.”

Because with the bigger responsibility also comes a louder voice. The Lynx truly feels like her team, and the team has been better for it. Because Collier’s voice is such a force for good.

She’s played a big role in establishing this specific team’s culture and the players’ love for one another. The relationships formed have served as a strong base for a team that thrives off accountability. Just as Collier expects herself to show up and perform on a nightly basis, she demands the same from her teammates — and has the highest confidence they, too, will deliver. And they’ll do it for one another, just as she does it for them.

“When we were 0-6, I never doubted us for a second. I knew we had a lot of young people, a lot of new people, but the chemistry we had off the court, we just needed to translate it to on the court,” Collier said. “It took us a couple of games to get there, and we did have highs and lows throughout the season, but I never doubted us, because the will we have to play for each other as a team is so strong, so we can overcome a lot with that mentality.”

After the Game 2 victory, Reeve discussed Minnesota’s current circumstance — being a win away from a playoff series victory over an elite opponent — through the lens of Collier’s career.

“Phee has an opportunity to put our team in a position to win her first playoff series. We’ve won single-elimination games in her young career, but not yet a playoff series,” Reeve said. “So that’s the next evolution, and I’m thrilled with our team that we’ve put ourselves in that position to have a chance to give Phee that opportunity to take that next step.”

It was a fitting statement, because this season truly has been about Collier and her development, not just as a player, but a leader. The massive steps she has taken in both categories only cement the fact that the Lynx can indeed rise to championship-level competition again — if not this season (and it may indeed be this season), then soon.

And it can do so with, and because of, their superstar forward.

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Lynx stave off WNBA playoff elimination

Jace Frederick / St. Paul Pioneer Press — Sun, 17 Sep 2023 23:26:21 GMT

Backs against the wall, season on the line, the Lynx did what they’ve done all summer. Minnesota threw a massive haymaker Sunday in Connecticut, downing the third-seeded Sun 82-75 in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series to force a win-or-go-home Game 3 on Wednesday in Minneapolis to decide the series outcome.

The Lynx’s two established pillars delivered the goods, with Napheesa Collier rebounding from an underwhelming series opener to deliver 26 points, 13 rebounds, two steals and one blocked shot.

“Just the mentality throughout the whole game I want to leave it all out there and do everything I can on the court,” Collier said. “It’s such a special group of women that I’m playing with this year, so I want to give it my all, because I expect the same from them, and I think that’s why we have such a great team.”

Kayla McBride provided all the support Collier could ask for from a sidekick, pacing the Lynx with 28 points on the strength of six three-point shots. The guard also added eight rebounds on a day in which she didn’t leave the floor.

“When they play like this, we’re hard to beat,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. “I’ll take these two any day of the week.”

As a whole, the Lynx did everything required to win a road playoff game against a top-tier opponent. They turned the ball over just seven times and held the Sun to 44 percent shooting, while outrebounding Connecticut 35-30.

The Sun scored just 32 points in the paint. The Lynx had 15 second-chance points to Connecticut’s five. Twenty-two of Minnesota’s 33 made field goals were assisted. The defensive end, Reeve noted, was the catalyst for Minnesota. The Lynx struggled mightily on that end over their last three games — all losses. But they tightened the screws on Sunday.

It was a great performance when greatness was required to stave off elimination.

The Lynx led for essentially the entire game, building a 16-point lead in the third quarter. When Connecticut made its expected push in the final period to trim the Lynx lead to two, Minnesota responded. It did so, frankly, with grit. The Lynx made just 7 of 17 shots from the field in the fourth quarter, but outrebounded Connecticut 14-6 over the final 10 minutes, as the Lynx grabbed four offensive rebounds.

“In those moments, I think we just needed to pick up our aggression, and kind of throw caution to the wind, as Coach would say, and just give everything we have,” McBride said. “We knew they were going to make their runs, make their shots, get the crowd going, but we had to continue to answer, and we’ve been doing that all season. We know we’ve been in adverse situations all season, and we’ve continued to respond. Today was just another example of that.

“Now we get to go back to Minny and do it again.”

A similar effort will be required in Game 3 to advance. Connecticut won 27 games during the regular season for a reason. The Sun will not be an easy out. But Minnesota now returns home to play the biggest game of the season in front of its home fans. That’s a massive advantage for the Lynx.

“It feels awesome. We have such a great fanbase, too, in Minnesota. We know the house is gonna be packed, it’s gonna be loud. So we’re really excited,” Collier said. “If we play like this again, we’re so hard to beat. And it’s fun to play that way. So I can’t wait for the next game. … We’re ready to go out there and leave it all on the court again.”

“We’re 40 minutes from the semifinals in the playoffs,” Reeve said. “What else can you ask for?”

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Underdog Lynx enter WNBA playoffs ready to ‘go in there and knock some socks off’

Jace Frederick / St. Paul Pioneer Press — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 23:57:22 GMT

The Lynx did not finish the WNBA’s regular season the way they had hoped to, and coach Cheryl Reeve made that abundantly clear with her postgame comments after the team’s loss Sunday to Indiana that cemented Minnesota into the No. 6 seed in the playoffs.

But the good news, Lynx forward Napheesa Collier told reporters Tuesday, is none of that matters now. Sure, the 0-2 finish to the regular season pits the Lynx against a championship-caliber team in Connecticut to start the postseason.

And sure, Collier noted, there are lessons to be learned from the past two losses. Minnesota needs to defend with more vigor and a closer attachment to the game plan, while also closing with better offensive execution.

But now that the Lynx are locked into this matchup, all that’s of consequence is what they do moving forward, starting with Game 1 on Wednesday in Connecticut.

The Lynx held a team dinner Tuesday, a tradition of sorts whenever the squad makes the playoffs. It serves two purposes — to celebrate the regular season, while also preparing for the postseason. In many ways, it serves as the official transition from what has happened to what’s to come.

“Right now, I think it’s 0-0. It literally doesn’t matter, anything that you did in the regular season,” Collier said. “And I think that’s comforting, too. Because we didn’t end the way we wanted to, but that doesn’t matter now. Obviously, we wanted to end on a high note, but it had nothing to do with what we’re doing now and what we need to focus on for Connecticut. We’re not even going to see Indiana (which beat the Lynx on Sunday) until next year. So we have to learn from what we did, but focus on what’s ahead and lock in on that.”

Collier said the Lynx didn’t even watch film from Sunday’s loss. All eyes are looking forward.

“What matters is the next two games in front of us,” she said. “And then after that, to get to the third, if we need to; hopefully, we win two.”

That’s the new first-round setup in the WNBA playoffs. Lower seeds — such as the Lynx — will play Games 1 and 2 on the road in the best-of-3 format. If either team wins both games, the series is over.

But if Minnesota can split the two games in Connecticut, a decisive Game 3 would be played at Target Center next week.

“Playing that at home, in front of our crowd, for a Game 3 is what we hope for and what we want and the position that we want to put ourselves in,” Collier said. “So we’re absolutely ready to go in there and knock some socks off.”

Those are confident words coming from a team that won eight fewer regular-season games than its first-round opponent. Connecticut sports MVP candidate Alyssa Thomas, who tallied a gaudy six triple-doubles in the regular season (the previous record was two), including two against the Lynx. The Sun also had the league’s second-best defense during the regular season, surrendering just 98.8 points per 100 possessions.

But the Lynx have reasons for optimism. While they lost three of four regular-season matchups with Connecticut, two of the losses were nail-biters.

Plus, Minnesota has Napheesa Collier, who was named second-team All-WNBA by the Associated Press on Tuesday. The forward, in her first full season back after missing most of the 2022 season following the birth of her child, also shared the Comeback Player of the Year award with Phoenix’s Brittney Griner.

“She’s amazing,” Lynx rookie Diamond Miller said of Collier. “I think she should’ve been first (team). Because she works really hard, and you would not have known she didn’t play last season. That’s how much she bounced back so quickly. I just feel like she’s got the dog in her, and I’m excited to see what she does in playoffs.”

Collier is a known commodity. What remains to be seen is how Minnesota’s rookies — Miller and Dorka Juhasz, both of whom were all-rookie team selections — respond to the playoff stage. The answer to that will likely determine how much noise the Lynx can make over the next week-plus.

“I’m just going to go out there and do what I did all season. Just play hard and stuff like that,” Collier said. “Obviously, I can’t control everything. But I know if I just put my best foot forward, good things should happen.”

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Lynx drop regular-season finale to finish with No. 6 playoff seed

Jace Frederick / St. Paul Pioneer Press — Mon, 11 Sep 2023 01:11:05 GMT

Minnesota needed a win and a little help to nab the No. 5 seed in the WNBA playoffs and a seemingly more winnable first-round matchup against Dallas.

It got the help. It did not get the win.

The Lynx dropped their regular-season finale 87-72 to the Indiana Fever on Sunday in Indianapolis, securing Minnesota’s first-round date with third-seeded Connecticut.

Atlanta, which lost Sunday to Dallas, still grabbed the No. 5 seed by virtue of a head-to-head tiebreak with Minnesota and will meet the Wings in Round 1.

Connecticut won 27 games this season. Dallas won 22.

So Sunday was certainly a missed opportunity for the Lynx (19-21), who lost to a 13-win team. The score was tied 67-67 with eight minutes to play, but the Fever (13-27) closed the game on a 20-5 run.

Game 1 of Minnesota’s best-of-three series with the Sun is set for Wednesday in Connecticut. Only a decisive Game 3, if necessary, would be played in Minneapolis. The Lynx went 1-3 against the Sun (27-13) in four regular-season meetings.

If the Lynx want to punch up to Connecticut’s level in the playoff series, they’ll have to finish games better than they did Sunday. Minnesota shot 2 for 13 from the field in the fourth quarter in Indiana, while committing six turnovers over the final 10 minutes.

“Pretty darn disappointing,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. “That’s about the nicest thing I have to say. Pretty darn disappointing.”

On the other end, Minnesota had no answer for rookie forward Aliyah Boston. The No. 1 overall pick of the 2023 draft scored 12 of her 19 points in the final period. She also had 12 rebounds on the day.

Erica Wheeler scored 24 points to lead Indiana, which entered the day already eliminated from playoff contention. Indiana topped Minnesota in all three of the meetings between the two teams this summer.

“They acted like they had more to play for than we did,” Reeve said. “Awfully disappointing.”

Reeve lamented the lack of trust her players seem to have shown over the past two games — both losses — in the defensive game plan.

“It’s rooted in trust. How do you come out in the first quarter and give up 20 points in the paint, and then turn around and ask, ‘Oh, you want me to help? You want that (help defender) to be me?’ It’s a complete lack of focus and intentionality. And for us, competing for a playoff spot, it’s not about learning. That’s not about learning. That’s about doing what you’re told and what your job is and trust your coaches and do what you’re supposed to do.”

Napheesa Collier capped off an MVP-caliber regular season with a 23-point, 10-rebound performance for the Lynx, while Kayla McBride paced Minnesota with 24 points. Diamond Miller added 11 points, but no other Lynx player scored more than four points.

“It’s a disappointing end for us,” Collier said. “Just not playing with the intensity that we need, I think — that grit. We were playing hard, but we weren’t playing hard enough. And that’s the difference, because they were playing hard enough. We’re the one that’s still playing for our season, so I think that’s a disappointing end for us, and something we’ve got to fix before Wednesday.”

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Sky hold off Lynx, clinch playoff berth

Field Level Media — Sat, 09 Sep 2023 03:25:46 GMT

Kahleah Copper led five Chicago scorers in double figures with 20 points, and the Sky clinched a berth in the WNBA playoffs with a 92-87 defeat of the visiting Minnesota Lynx on Friday.

Chicago (17-22) came into the contest needing only a win to earn a playoff bid thanks to Los Angeles' loss at New York on Thursday. The Sky responded with a big second quarter, outscoring Minnesota 28-20 to build a lead they held the entire second half.

The Lynx (19-20) -- coming into Chicago one game behind the Dallas Wings for the No. 4 seed and home-court advantage in the postseason's opening round -- battled back to cut an 11-point, third-quarter deficit to two.

The Sky answered with 19-9 run that began in the late third quarter and extended into the fourth, capped when Copper sank one of her five made 3-pointers while under duress with 3:22 to go.

Copper was called for a technical foul for taunting after the basket, but Chicago maintained control down the stretch.

Minnesota halved the deficit to six points over the next minute, but Copper helped snuff out the rally when she found Marina Mabrey at almost the same spot near the top of the key where Copper hit her deep shot.

Mabrey connected, one of her four made 3-pointers, to punctuate a 19-point performance. Copper's assist was one of five. Courtney Williams -- who also scored 13 points -- dished 11 assists for the Sky.

Chicago's 11-of-22 shooting overall from 3-point range helped make the difference, as Minnesota finished 7-for-19 from deep.

Diamond Miller shot 3-for-4 from long range for the Lynx and 10-for-11 overall en route to 24 points. Napheesa Collier led all scorers with 28 points. Kayla McBride added 16 and Tiffany Mitchell scored 10 for Minnesota.

Alanna Smith finished with 11 points for Chicago, while Ruthy Hebard shot 4-for-5 from the floor on the way to 10 points off the bench.

Dana Evans contributed another nine points off the Sky bench. Chicago's Sika Kone matched Minnesota's Dorka Juhasz with a game-high 10 rebounds.

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Lynx clinch playoff berth with 86-73 win over Phoenix

Mike Cook / St. Paul Pioneer Press — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 03:57:12 GMT

Kayla McBride and Napheesa Collier have been the sparkplugs for much of the Lynx season.

With the outcome in doubt, both did their thing Sunday.

But so did many others in a second-half surge as Minnesota pulled away to beat lowly Phoenix 86-73 and secure a postseason berth.

“This is a team that’s got a belief in themselves, and that third quarter I thought was really special the way we came out exactly how we needed,” said coach Cheryl Reeve, who earned win No. 300 in her 14th season as Lynx coach. Only Mike Thibault (379) and Bill Laimbeer (306) have more in WNBA history.

Collier had eight of her 22 points, and McBride seven of her 23, in the deciding frame that saw the Lynx turn a halftime tie into a 15-point lead.

“On the defensive end is where we stood out and that got us out in transition,” McBride said. “Then it became fun at that point. When we’re playing off our defense that’s the best version of us. We came out with a different fire, a different mentality.”

But this one was far from about just she and Collier.

Dorka Juhász narrowly missed a triple-double with 10 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, becoming the second rookie in WNBA history to have consecutive games of double-digit points and rebounds and at least six assists.

Diamond Miller scored just seven points but was strong defensively; Rachel Banham had seven points, including a 4-point play late in the first half, and Bridget Carleton scored six points but added four rebounds.

Early in the third quarter, Juhász, a 6-foot-5 center, grabbed a rebound in the Lynx end, made a few dribbles and hit a streaking Miller with a perfect, in-stride pass for an easy layup. A trey from Carleton five minutes later gave Minnesota a 61-48 lead, forcing a Phoenix timeout, and getting the first “Our House” chant from the 7,314 in attendance on Fan Appreciation Night.

“At this time of year we need everybody to have games like this,” said Collier, who added 16 rebounds for her eighth 20-plus point, 10-plus rebound effort of the season. She is the first player in WNBA history to have consecutive games with at least 20 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks.

Phoenix cut the Lynx lead to 11 a minute into the fourth quarter but Collier and McBride answered. Two more Phoenix baskets were countered by buckets from Juhász and Collier, and the Lynx lead was 16, a margin that eventually reached 18.

Minnesota had a season-high 28 assists on 31 baskets.

“That’s the space we want to live in,” McBride said.

Fifth in the WNBA standings, Minnesota is 1 1/2 games behind fourth-place Dallas and home court in the first round. Atlanta and Washington are 1 1/2 games behind the Lynx. Minnesota has games left at Chicago Friday and at Indiana Sunday. Playoffs begin Sept. 13.

“This season has been a journey of ups and downs, great moments, difficult moments. I’ve enjoyed this; I really wanted it for this group. We feel like we have more we can do,” Reeve said.

Minnesota (19-19) opened the season with six straight losses, but the group maintained a belief in itself knowing success wasn’t far away.

“Even though we were 0-6, the energy in the locker (room) at the beginning of the season was a thing. We … believed in each other and we knew we were going to snap out of it and figure it out,” Carleton said pregame. “Coaches believed in us and we stuck together.”

Phoenix has lost eight straight, has the league’s worst record at 9-28 and will miss the postseason for the first time in 11 seasons. It is 1-18 on the road. Moriah Jefferson, who started 30 games for Minnesota last season, led the Mercury with a career-high 32 points.

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New York Liberty run around and shoot over Minnesota Lynx in 111-76 win

Mike Cook / St. Paul Pioneer Press — Sun, 27 Aug 2023 02:49:22 GMT

Those whooshing sounds inside Target Center Saturday night were generally one of two things: a New York Liberty player again blowing past a Lynx defender or another Liberty shot hitting nothing but net.

There was plenty of both.

Breanna Stewart scored 27 of her game-high 38 points in the first half — 17 in the first quarter alone — and the Liberty cruised past Minnesota 111-76.

New York’s total just missed a Lynx record for points allowed in a regulation game. Las Vegas scored 113 on July 9. The 35-point loss was five shy of the franchise record, set July 12 against Dallas.

Yes, Stewart is one of the top players in the world and, yes, she plays on one of the best WNBA teams, but many of her makes were somewhat contested. Sitting out the fourth quarter, she finished 12 for 17 from the field, including 6 of 8 from deep, as New York — whose 27-7 record trails only defending champion Las Vegas’ 30-5 mark — rolled to a 65-35 halftime lead.

It is the most points the Lynx have allowed in a half this season, and New York’s 37 second-quarter points were also a season-worst for any quarter.

And there goes Courtney Vandersloot around a Lynx defender for another uncontested layup as part of a 15-point night. Or was it Betnijah Laney getting two of her 15? It kind of ran together.

But don’t blink because Sabrina Ionescu has the ball outside the arc. She’s got no defender close and … swish! She had a trio of treys among her 19 points.

New York shot 55.4%, including 12-27 on three-pointers. Its lead reached 41 in the fourth quarter. The Liberty had 28 fast-break points, 24 more than Minnesota, and scored 25 points off 14 Lynx turnovers.

Diamond Miller reached double-digits for the first time in five games with 18 points to lead Minnesota (17-18), which started the season with six straight losses and missed its third chance to go over .500. Napheesa Collier had 10 points and Kayla McBride nine, both in just 20 minutes.

With five games remaining, Minnesota is 1 1/2 games behind fourth-place Dallas and half a game up on No. 6 Atlanta. The top four teams have home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Would that even be a good thing for Minnesota, now 7-11 at Target Center? Three of its final five games are on the road.

“Going into the season it’s always, ‘If you win your home games you have a chance,’ ” forward Jessica Shepherd said pregame. “It’s important going into these last games at home that we can kind of set the tone going into playoffs.”

Um.

Coach Cheryl Reeve was prophetic pregame.

“It’s a group that in terms of win or lose we bounce back. That’s what we do, we stick together. They don’t hang their heads for very long, they stick together. That’s why we were able to navigate the stretch in the beginning and then hopefully it’s why we’re able to weather any difficult storms we have tonight, subsequent games, and hopefully playoffs.”

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Uninspired Lynx fall 88-74 to Seattle

Mike Cook / Special to the St. Paul Pioneer Press — Mon, 21 Aug 2023 02:54:19 GMT

The WNBA’s leading scorer bounced back nicely Sunday. That was bad news for the unenergetic, uninspired Minnesota Lynx.

Jewell Loyd scored 31 points and Seattle beat Minnesota 88-74 in a relatively quiet Target Center.

A visibly frustrated Cheryl Reeve questioned the team’s effort two days after Minnesota won 78-70 in the Pacific Northwest.

“They came in with great will and determination and beat us in every phase of the game. … It’s unfathomable to me,” the coach said.

The 15-17 Lynx are just 6-10 at home.

“We consistently come out and let an opponent just will their way in every phase of the game. You know, there’s countless games that we’ve said this about. So, we don’t get it. We don’t get how to have a special season,” Reeve said. “We don’t get that you have to win your home games to have a special season. We don’t get that when you just beat a team on their floor how they’re going to come out and play. We don’t get it. It’s not like we don’t talk about it. … If we don’t fix it, it isn’t going to end like we want it to.”

“About 48 hours ago we came out with a determination and intensity about us,” Kayla McBride said. “I think it started on defense. … I just think we didn’t have it defensively being locked in and it carried over to offense.”

Held to 15 points Friday, Loyd was 10 of 25 from the field, including 5 of 10 from outside the arc. She averages 24.1 points per contest.

Before the game, Reeve spoke about the importance of Lynx defenders getting out to consistently contest Loyd and Sami Whitcomb.

Whitcomb had 10 for the Storm, 13 fewer than Friday. Seattle was 10 for 26 from deep, Minnesota 4 of 18.

“Jewell was obviously terrific. But look at what we did. Look at what we did,” Reeve said. “You know, the focal point was to get her off the three-point line. We went under screens, out of plays and they’re wide open, you know, five threes in the first half for those two players alone. Jewell got a fire lit in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter in Seattle and she continued it throughout the game. Our pick and roll defense, our point of the screen defense was horrendous.”

Minnesota cut its deficit to 10 early in the fourth quarter, but the team missed a pair of shots from in close. Back the other way, Loyd drove past Nikolina Milic to score on a layup and make a subsequent free throw to make it 71-58.

A pair of uncontested baskets by Loyd — a wide-open three-pointer and a jumper — pushed the lead to 78-61 midway through the quarter.

“This is about dictating and not reacting,” McBride said. “When you’re playing a great scorer like Jewell Loyd, she’s gonna get her shots, she’s gonna get to her spots, but it’s about making everything hard for her.”

McBride led Minnesota with 18 points. Napheesa Collier had 14 points and nine rebounds, and Tiffany Mitchell added 11 points.

Seattle (10-22) scored 21 points off 12 Minnesota turnovers; the Lynx scored six points off nine Storm miscues. And Seattle outrebounded Minnesota 41-37 and had a 20-11 edge in second-chance points.

A three-pointer from McBride put the Lynx up by one with 3:22 left in the first half. Seattle scored 24 of the next 32 points, including Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu getting the better of three Lynx defenders in the paint to make it 57-42 in the third quarter.

Minnesota rallied with an 8-0 run over the next five minutes before Seattle scored seven straight points. The Storm led by a dozen points heading into the fourth quarter.

“A team that’s won five less games than us, a team that we beat three times to just kind of come in here and just have more fun and more will. That’s tough,” Reeve said. “That’s a tough night for the Lynx.”

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