After an electrifying 4th quarter in a Game 1 win, the Minnesota Lynx are looking to take a commanding series lead and move within one win of the WNBA Finals. This ESPN matchup should be a fun one, as a rowdy Target Center will help cheer their team on to a 2-0 advantage in the WNBA semifinals.
Courtney Williams will be a massive key in this one as she was in Game 1, scoring 23 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists while also picking the Phoenix Mercury’s ball handlers clean with five steals. The Lynx
are hungry to celebrate Napheesa Collier’s birthday on a high note before the series flips to Phoenix on Friday.
Napheesa Collier started the game extremely strong on her birthday with nine points in the first quarter to get the Lynx offense rolling. Minnesota made it a point to get Collier going early. Alyssa Thomas was helping to orchestrate the offense as she always does, dropping a few dimes early on. The back-and-forth first quarter ended with a slight advantage to the Lynx as they clung to a two-point lead.
After the first quarter, Napheesa Collier and Kayla McBride worked in tandem to help the Lynx dominate much of the frame. This was when Minnesota put the pedal to the metal as they played suffocating defense and fluid offense to outscore the Mercury by 14 in the quarter. Minnesota scored 27 as a team and held Phoenix to a measly 13 points. MVPhee led the charge, and everyone else followed suit.
At the start of the third, it seemed like a light switch had been flipped. The Lynx came out flat and were careless with the ball to let the Mercury back into the game. While they still maintained a decent advantage, some bad turnovers helped the Mercury go on a 15-3 run over the final six minutes.
With the game still very much in the balance, the Lynx had to regain composure to stave off the charging Mercury. Their toughness showed up defensively to start the fourth, getting their lead back up to 11. But just like the third quarter, Phoenix went on a 7-0 run to cut it to four with five minutes left. More turnovers helped the Mercury tie the game at 70 with three and a half minutes left after a Satou Sabally And-1.
After some back and forth, the Lynx found themselves with a three-point advantage with just 20.7 seconds left. On this possession, there was a scrum and a few looks for the Mercury where Sami Whitcomb finally got one to drop to tie the game with 3.4 seconds left. Phee had a good look at a game-winner but missed, sending the game to overtime.
Overtime was much of the same for the Lynx as they struggled to get good looks on offense. Alyssa Thomas used her strength to create points and even got the lead up to six with under two minutes to play. Minnesota showed some fight with a couple of tough baskets, but an Alyssa Thomas layup with minimal time proved to be the final nail in the coffin as the Lynx fell apart for an 89-83 loss.
Turnovers, Turnovers, Turnovers
This is the usual story of the Lynx losses, and it proved to be true tonight. Minnesota coughed up the ball 18 times and gave up 21 points off those turnovers. What proved to be as tough as the turnovers themselves was the timing of them and how much it seemed to impact their offense.
It seemed like they happened at the worst possible time, most notably, they were called for a five-second inbounding violation with 46.8 seconds left and the Lynx up three. It also felt as though every time they had a turnover, it turned into the next few possessions being impacted by that play as well. Thought to win with those types of errors.
Night and Day – First Half and Second Half
The first half was a great showing on both ends of the floor for the Lynx, especially in the second quarter. The ball was flying around, and they were doing a great job bottling up the Mercury offense. That all seemed to change after they came out of the locker room. They struggled to get into their rhythm offensively and lost some of their edge defensively as Phoenix kept getting after it. Props to the Mercury for not giving up, but Minnesota can also learn a lot from this one.
Bottle Up the 2nd Quarter
As much as this loss stings, the Lynx have to throw it out and bottle up their performance in the second quarter. They’ll have a few days to get right before Friday tip, and they’ll need all hands on deck if they want to wipe away this performance and regain home court advantage in a pivotal Game 3. Replicating that second-quarter performance has to be at the top of the agenda as the Lynx head to Arizona.
Up Next
The series heads to Phoenix tied 1-1 for the first time for a late evening tipoff on Friday at 8:30 PM CT on ESPN 2 as the Lynx try to recover and save their season out in the desert.
