When asked about the end of the Lynx’s June 7 loss in Phoenix, coach Cheryl Reeve was quick to rattle off specifics: The Lynx were up six points with 90 seconds left. With 0.7 seconds remaining, Kahleah Copper’s dagger three-pointer clinched the Mercury’s quick comeback.
Lynx beat Mercury 73-60 for sixth victory in a row
After losing to Phoenix on a buzzer-beater earlier this month, the Lynx used Napheesa Collier’s 23 points and 14 rebounds to set themselves up entering Tuesday’s Commissioner’s Cup.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
June 23, 2024 at 2:07AM
“They’re still feeling that [loss], and that’s a good thing,” Reeve said before the teams’ rematch. “Even as a staff … you get in that situation, you learn from it. Hopefully, if you find yourself there again, you do better.”
On Saturday at Target Center, the Lynx wouldn’t give Phoenix the chance for any last-gasp heroics.
The Lynx led by as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter and beat Phoenix 73-60 to extend their win streak to six — the most consecutive victories for the Lynx (13-3) since early 2021.
“We owed them one,” Lynx guard Courtney Williams said.
Napheesa Collier had 23 points and 14 rebounds for her ninth double-double of the season. The upcoming Olympian — plus Reeve, who will coach the U.S. women’s basketball team — put the Lynx up 2-1 in the season series against Olympic teammates Copper, Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi.
The Lynx outrebounded Phoenix 44-31, notable since, for all their defensive success, the Lynx are 10th in the WNBA in defensive rebounding percentage. It was an area of focus Reeve said was targeted with a pregame rebounding drill. “We put Phee in charge of that,” Reeve said.
“We want to go really far this season, and to do that, we know that rebounding has to be a habit because it’s going to kill us in the long run,” Collier said. “So I think we were just really intentional about blocking out.”
Courtney Williams added 12 points and a season-high nine rebounds for the Lynx. Center/forward Alanna Smith shot 5-for-7 for 14 points, dishing a team-high five assists. She knocked down three first-half three-pointers to put the Lynx up 13 at the half vs the Mercury (8-8).
Pregame talk focused on Griner, the All-Star center who fractured her foot in training camp and made her delayed season debut for the Mercury in their dramatic victory over the Lynx earlier this month. Entering Saturday’s game, Griner averaged 21.4 points per game on 62.7% shooting. Reeve said pregame that the 6-9 Griner is one of the most difficult big defensive assignments in the league — one who will be an asset in Paris but a challenge in Minnesota.
The Lynx’s 6-4 Smith and 6-3 Dorka Juhász held Griner to 4-for-14 shooting and 10 points.
“I just have a great appreciation for [Smith’s] work ethic, her belief in herself, who she is as a teammate,” Reeve said. “She may look like her arm’s falling off, like her leg hurts, but all of a sudden, she’ll sprint the floor.”
Phoenix also felt the brunt of the Lynx’s league-leading three-point defense. Fourth in the league in three-point percentage (34.3%), Phoenix shot only 7-for-34 (20.6%) from beyond the arc and 31.1% from the floor. Copper, third in the league in scoring (23.5), scored just nine points after dropping 34 the last time she faced the Lynx. Natasha Cloud led the Mercury with 14 points.
Only league-leading Connecticut has held Phoenix to fewer points this season (47).
The Lynx shot 8-for-22 (36.4%) from three, including Kayla McBride’s buzzer-beater at the end of the first half, a punctuation celebrated by those in attendance on Pride Night.
A small handful of those fans started heading out to beat the traffic with about a minute remaining in the game, victory already decided. After that last-minute loss in Phoenix, that’s probably exactly how the Lynx wanted it.
Done with its undefeated homestand, the Lynx head on the road to face the New York Liberty in the Commissioner’s Cup championship on Tuesday, with a trophy and prize purse of $500,000 on the line. The Liberty (14-3) sit second in the league, just one spot ahead of the Lynx.
“We’re competitors, so it’s going to be competitive even because of that, take the money out,” Collier said. “But then you put that money on the line, people are going to fight hard. I think it’s going to be a really great game.”
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