Sun 94, Lynx 84: An Opportunity Wasted

On an evening the place the Connecticut Solar rolled into Minneapolis with out their finest participant — 2021 WNBA MVP Jonquel Jones, who’s recovering from COVID-19 — to battle with a Minnesota Lynx squad combating for his or her playoff lives in a must-win scenario, it was to be anticipated that Minnesota’s sense of urgency can be at a season-high.

As an alternative, the Lynx got here out with the restricted defensive depth, in addition to the turnover bug, and paid the value for it. The Solar carved up the Minnesota protection in demoralizing style, scoring 94 factors on 55.2% taking pictures from the ground.

“I feel the disappointing half is to see a scarcity of will, lack of motion, lack of play the scheme onerous so we are able to work out the proper scheme. They did all the things they needed,” Lynx Head Coach and Normal Supervisor Cheryl Reeve mentioned postgame. “They needed to be within the paint, they had been within the paint, they wish to kick it out, they kicked it out. We don’t transfer with an excessive amount of confidence in what we’re presupposed to be doing.”

Offensively, Minnesota was capable of generate beauty — they shot 54.8% from the ground themselves — and put some good motion on movie earlier than a rematch with Connecticut on Sunday.

“I believed general, you already know, we had we had respectable motion. We had been you already know, pitching and generally chases, generally again reduce, we had been okay, there. [But] we gotta make photographs,” Reeve mentioned, earlier than asserting a change we’ll see in Sunday’s recreation. “We’ll repair the beginning lineup. We’ll do one thing completely different on Sunday. That first group has not been an excellent group collectively. So we’re now going to look to do one thing completely different.”

Jess Shepard began rather than Damiris Dantas tonight — who’s away from the staff for private causes — and struggled to get it going. She scored two factors on six photographs and was not her normal self on the glass, grabbing just one rebound.

Past Shepard, the Lynx received stable contributions offensively from the opposite 4; Sylvia Fowles, Aerial Powers, Kayla McBride and Moriah Jefferson mixed to attain 45 factors on 19/30 (63%), however they only couldn’t hold tempo with the torrid Solar offense, led by DeWanna Bonner’s 20 factors on 8/12 taking pictures.

Head Coach Curt Miller’s squad performed an especially crisp offensive recreation that was fueled by beating perimeter defenders off the dribble, hitting unabated passes into the publish, and successfully throwing skip passes over the again line of the protection for large open 3s. Connecticut shot 10/21 (47.6%) because of this.

Minnesota simply couldn’t string stops collectively at any level of the sport earlier than it entered blowout territory. The Lynx put up 25 factors on 9/16 taking pictures (56.3%) within the third quarter, however the Solar lead grew by six, from 13 to 19.

Connecticut feasted within the paint, scoring 16 within the third alone on 8/8 taking pictures, and went 3/5 from past the arc; the Solar scored 31 factors within the body on 13/17 (76.5%), which sums up the evening for the Lynx. Even when the offense rose to the event by taking part in with some tempo, urgency and unselfishness, their protection wilted and the staff didn’t look significantly impassioned or desirous to play for each other on that finish.

In an comprehensible transfer, Reeve benched the beginning unit for the rest of the sport with 54 seconds left within the third after a Solar pick-six prolonged their result in 22. The Lynx went on to provide it away 17 instances, with these 17 turnovers resulting in 22 Solar factors and 10 quick break factors.

Regardless of the result of the sport already being determined at that time, the fourth quarter produced some fireworks.

Newly-signed Lindsay Allen made her Lynx debut tonight, registering six factors, 4 rebounds, and three assists within the fourth alone on her strategy to a line with 9 factors, seven dimes and 4 rebounds. The seven dimes are probably the most in franchise historical past for a participant in her Lynx debut. Nina Milić joined Allen within the fourth quarter with 10 factors and 5 boards, herself, in that body.

To place the cherry on high of an amazing evening for Connecticut, ahead Alyssa Thomas, who performed 11 extra minutes than another starter, recorded her tenth rebound with 18.8 seconds left to finish a 15-point, 12-assist, and 10 rebound triple-double. Miller then instantly referred to as a timeout so his staff may have a good time her, along with his staff successful 94-84. They may later be heard throughout the corridor in the midst of Reeve’s postgame press convention celebrating the primary triple-double in Solar franchise historical past and seventeenth in league historical past.

“Isn’t that nice? To have enjoyable, to come back to Minnesota and have a good time in our constructing. Ain’t that enjoyable and thrilling? First triple-double of their franchise’s historical past. Get to take a timeout on us and have a good time,” Reeve mentioned after she was interrupted. “Not an excellent evening for the Lynx, was it?”

To make issues worse for the Lynx, they’re operating out of probabilities to win video games, climb the WNBA standings, and earn a spot within the playoffs to provide soon-to-be Corridor of Famer Sylvia Fowles a possibility to shut out her profession with a hoop. They should face the Solar twice extra this season, together with once more on Sunday, the day Jones is predicted to return.

At present, Minnesota is one recreation again of the ninth-seeded Phoenix Mercury and path the No. 8 seed Dallas Wings by two video games, after Dallas misplaced to the first-place Chicago Sky tonight. It received’t get any simpler: seven of the staff’s closing eight video games will come towards groups within the high eight of the WNBA standings. Phoenix has three video games left towards groups exterior the highest eight, whereas Dallas performs 5 of its final 12 video games towards such groups.

Given the circumstances, the Lynx completely must win on Sunday in the event that they wish to hold tempo with the Wings and Mercury and provides themselves an opportunity to provide one of many recreation’s all-time nice gamers a ship off she so richly deserves. However the clock is ticking, the telephone is ringing, and it’s unsure if the Lynx can reply the decision.