The Minnesota Lynx will try to secure the top seed in the WNBA playoffs for a second straight season when they visit the Indiana Fever on Tuesday in Indianapolis.
This is the penultimate game of both teams’ regular-season campaigns. They’ll square off again Thursday in Minneapolis to end the season.
The Lynx (32-10) are a game ahead of the second-place Golden State Valkyries with two games to play. A win Tuesday would guarantee Minnesota the No. 1 seed since the Lynx own the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Valkyries after winning three of four games against them this season.
Minnesota claimed the best overall record last year but lost to the Phoenix Mercury in the playoff semifinals. The Lynx, as the No. 2 seed, fell to the New York Liberty in the finals in 2024.
“It’s hard to be the last team to win a game,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. “I would be surprised if the players that have been here aren’t fueled. There’s also a little bit of PTSD, finishing first last season.”
Minnesota heads to Indy after posting a 101-89 road win over the Connecticut Sun on Sunday that snapped a three-game losing streak.
Olivia Miles broke Caitlin Clark’s WNBA rookie scoring record in the win, eclipsing Clark’s 2024 mark of 769 points with a free throw early in the second quarter. Miles finished with 21 points to push her season total to 790 and counting.
Miles matched Clark’s mark in 39 games and passed it in 40. Clark took 40 contests to establish the record.
“It was more of a relief,” Miles said after breaking the record. “Those things tend to loom over your head. It’s special, but it more so means that we’re doing well as a team. I have great teammates around me, great friends who allowed me to be up there.”
The Fever (27-15) have fallen to fifth in the standings and will need to beat Minnesota both Tuesday and Thursday and get help from other teams to move up to fourth and earn home-court advantage in the first round.
Indiana’s most recent game was a 93-77 home loss Sunday to the playoff-bound Washington Mystics. The Fever got 47 combined points from Clark and Kelsey Mitchell but still produced their third-lowest scoring total of the season.
The setback snapped a three-game winning streak and dropped the Fever a game behind the Atlanta Dream for fourth place.
“Every one of these games that we’re playing right now are like playoff games,” Fever coach Stephanie White said. “We’ve got to understand collectively that everything has to take it up a notch. Intensity level. Preparation. Knowing personnel on our scouting report.
“At this time of the year, it’s not meant to be pretty basketball. It’s meant to be gritty basketball, and I think we have to be open to understanding that that’s the case.”
The Lynx won their only other meeting with Indiana this season, 108-100 on Aug. 2 in Minneapolis.
–Field Level Media
