Kayla McBride scored 22 points as the Minnesota Lynx cruised to an 86-66 win over the Indiana Fever on Thursday night in Minneapolis in the regular-season finale for both teams.
Natasha Howard added 21 points on 9-for-11 shooting for Minnesota (33-11), which finished with the best record in the league. Courtney Williams finished with nine points, 10 assists and seven rebounds.
Kelsey Mitchell scored 10 points to lead Indiana (28-16). Caitlin Clark finished with two points on 1-for-12 shooting overall and 0-for-7 from 3-point range.
Minnesota already had locked up the No. 1 playoff seed before the Thursday tipoff. The Lynx will face the No. 8 seed New York Liberty in the first round.
Indiana enters the postseason as the sixth seed, as the Washington Mystics (28-16) grabbed the fifth seed with a win on Thursday. The Fever will oppose the third seed in the opening round, either the Valkyries (31-12) or the Aces (30-13). Golden State and Las Vegas were both playing their regular-season finales later Thursday night.
The Lynx sprinted to a 32-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.
A dominant 18-0 run helped Minnesota create a sizable advantage in the early going. After Aliyah Boston made a basket to bring Indiana within 7-4, the Lynx defense did not give up a point for more than four minutes.
McBride sank a basket to start the big run and make it 9-4 with 6:08 left in the first quarter. Then came four consecutive 3-pointers by McBride, Collier, Nia Brodie and Collier again to extend the gap to 21-4 with 3:39 remaining in the session.
Aari McDonald added a pair of free throws and McBride added another basket to punctuate the run. By the time it was finished, the Lynx led 25-4.
Indiana was outscored 30-19 in the second quarter to fall further behind. The Fever trailed 62-32 at the half.
Williams drained a shot from beyond the arc to put the Lynx at the 50-point mark with 3:24 remaining in the first half. McBride hit another 3-pointer for the next score to increase Minnesota’s lead to 53-26 with 2:31 to go in the half.
The Fever scored only nine points in the third quarter and trailed substantially the rest of the way.
Lynx guard Olivia Miles missed her second game in a row because of left calf soreness.
Minnesota won just two of its final six games while Indiana dropped two of its last three.
–Field Level Media
