Lindsay Whalen and Sue Bird, who will be teammates on the U.S. team in the London Olympics, went head-to-head on Sunday at Target Center.

Neither shot well from the field. But both moved the ball around as usual. Whalen had eight assists -- seven in the first half -- Bird had nine. In the end, Whalen was happier when the game ended. The Lynx won 84-71.

"Honestly, it's no different than any other game," Bird said. "One of the unique things about the WNBA is you're either friends or you've probably played against each other or with each other at some point throughout your careers.

"So you probably know better than me, I've probably played against Lindsay a million times at this point. It's the same when I play against, you know, Tina Thompson for so many years and now she's my teammate or Diana [Taurasi] or this one or that one.

"You don't really think too much about it. Obviously, as a point guard, it's who I have to go against. Her team is very good."

Whalen was just three for 10 from the field for six points. She had six rebounds, one steal, one block and two turnovers.

Bird's numbers were similar. She was two for 10, including one for six on threes, for seven points. She had three rebounds, one assisted block and five turnovers.

"We did some really good things on the floor," Whalen said. "We had a little more flow to our game. We shared the ball well, played really connected on defense. [Sunday] was a really good day for us."

The Lynx had 24 assists on 30 baskets.

Seimone Augustus, the Lynx's other starting guard had six assists to go with her 10 points.

"We're going to enjoy this victory," Augustus said. "But we're going to move forward to the next game, which is against Washington. We stay motivated because we have team goals that we set in training camp, things that we want to do. ... We're trying to make history here and break some history from years ago."

One of them, of course, is to repeat as WNBA champions. The last team to do that was the Los Angeles Sparks in 2001 and '02.

The Lynx have Monday off. They practice on Tuesday morning before flying to Washington for a game against the Mystics on Wednesday night.