Natasha Howard scored a season-high 27 points as the Minnesota Lynx extended their winning streak to seven games with an 88-68 home victory over the Seattle Storm on Saturday.
Rookie Olivia Miles scored 19 points, while Kayla McBride and Courtney Williams each added 11 as the Lynx improved to a WNBA-best 9-2, while improving to 4-2 at home.
Natisha Hiedeman and Jade Melbourne each scored 14 points for the Storm (3-9), who were held to 34.9% from the floor and committed 23 turnovers that resulted in 25 Lynx points.
Flau’jae Johnson scored 10 points for Seattle, which fell to 0-3 in Commissioner’s Cup play. Minnesota improved to 3-0 in the midseason tournament standings.
Leading 45-43 at the half, the Lynx took off on a 10-0 spurt over the opening three minutes of the second half. A pair of layups from Howard and 3-pointers from Nia Coffey and Maya Caldwell shoved the Lynx’s margin to 55-43 and Seattle never pulled closer the nine points the rest of the game.
The Lynx turned seven third-quarter Seattle turnovers into 17 points.
Howard shot 12-for-16 from the floor and notched 11 of her 27 points in the Lynx’s third quarter push. Minnesota led by as many as 19 points in the third quarter and were up by as many as 21 late in the game.
Miles was 9-for-14 shooting, while dishing six assists and grabbing six rebounds for the Lynx, who finished with 27 assists on its 37 made baskets and won the points in the paint battle by a 50-20 margin.
Seattle was hot from long-range early, riding six first-quarter 3-pointers to an early 21-9 lead, and remained close through the first half. Hiedeman, who had an emotional pregame moment with a Lynx tribute video from her former team, was 3-for-9 from 3-point range.
The Storm did see the return of center Dominique Malonga, who missed eight games after a concussion. Malonga scored seven points in 14 minutes off the bench.
Seattle shot 9-for-17 (52.9%) in the first quarter, but just 13-for-46 (28.3%) the rest of the way.
–Field Level Media
