The Minnesota Lynx will look to move up in the league standings when they square off with the Dallas Wings on Thursday in Arlington, Texas, in the second contest of a two-game, home-and-home mini-series.
The Lynx took the first game, 91-86, on Tuesday in Minneapolis, snapping Dallas’ three-game winning streak and avenging a 40-point loss to the Wings in July that was their worst loss ever.
Napheesa Collier led all scorers with 29 points while Kayla McBride added 21 for Minnesota (16-17), which improved to 5-0 when both Collier and McBride score 20 points. Bridget Carleton hit for 14 points off the bench for the Lynx as Minnesota’s reserves outscored Dallas’ 25-6.
“This game, our offense saved us,” Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said afterward. “It was kind of a messy finish, but I like to win the game and then talk about what we have to improve on.”
The victory moved the Lynx into a tie with fifth-place Atlanta (which holds the tiebreaker with Minnesota) and to within two games of fourth-place Dallas in the standings.
Despite Tuesday’s loss, Dallas (18-15) is still just one of four squads in the WNBA with a winning record.
Satou Sabally led the Wings with 22 points but left late with a left ankle injury that saw Carleton ejected for a flagrant foul on a closeout during a Sabally 3-point attempt. Several fans were ejected after jeering at Sabally as she was being attended to for her injury in the midst of a heated game.
“The Schadenfreude to see someone get hurt can’t be a WNBA culture,” Sabally posted on social media after the game. “Terrible words from the sidelines all game long.”
Dallas often found itself trailing after scoring just 11 points in the first quarter. Down nine with just under 2 1/2 minutes remaining, the Wings pushed hard to get back in the game, closing their deficit to 87-86 with 19.6 seconds left.
Arike Ogunbowale, the league’s fifth leading scorer, added 20 points for Dallas and became the second-fastest player in WNBA history to reach 3,000 career points behind Washington’s Elena Delle Donne.
The Wings have captured two of the teams’ three matchups this season and can assure themselves the tiebreaker with Minnesota with another victory.
–Field Level Media
