The two scoring leaders for the Minnesota Lynx had much different plans heading into Sunday’s quick turnaround game against the Dallas Wings in Minneapolis.
Rookie point guard Olivia Miles said she would relax, watch film and get to sleep on time.
Veteran forward Napheesa Collier prepared to chase her young daughter around the house.
“Well, it’s a weekend, so I won’t be in bed for a while,” Collier said with a smile. “Mila has no school today. So, I’ll probably be playing dress-up and soccer.”
Collier and the Lynx (26-7) will get back to basketball when they tip off against the Wings (19-13) on Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis.
The contest will mark the second game in as many days for Minnesota, which is coming off a 98-87 win over the Las Vegas Aces on Saturday afternoon. The Lynx earned their 11th win in their last 12 games and bounced back from a loss against the Los Angeles Sparks on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Dallas will try to avoid a three-game losing streak.
In their past two losses, the Wings have allowed an average of 95 points.
Aziaha James said she and her Wings teammates could do more to limit opponents’ scoring.
“We can be better than we were (against Golden State),” James said, referring to the team’s 94-76 setback to the Valkyries on Friday. “So we’ll just go back, look at film, see what we missed. Golden State was attacking us one-on-one, so we’ve just got to guard our yard.”
Minnesota also has recently renewed its focus on playing tough defense. Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve sounded off on her players after Thursday’s loss, and she said she was mostly satisfied with their response in victory over Las Vegas on Saturday.
“We obviously found our footing after the first quarter,” Reeve said. “We held them to 37% (shooting) after the first quarter. Points in the paint had a lot to do with that – first quarter, they had their way inside. … But we found our way, and I thought we were relatively hard to play against in most possessions.”
The game will represent the latest homecoming for Wings star Paige Bueckers, who grew up just outside of Minneapolis in Hopkins, Minn. Bueckers leads Dallas with 20.0 points per game to go along with 5.7 assists and 4.1 rebounds.
Wings rookie Azzi Fudd hopes to return after sitting out Friday’s game against Golden State because of right knee soreness. Fudd, whom the Wings selected No. 1 overall this year, is averaging 13.1 points in 30 games (24 starts).
This is the fourth and final meeting of the regular season between the teams. Minnesota is 3-0 in the season series.
Natasha Howard has led the Lynx in scoring in two of the three wins against Dallas. Miles led the team once with 24 points on June 9.
Bueckers has led the Wings in scoring in all three matchups against the Lynx. She scored 27 points on May 14, 23 points on June 9 and 25 points on June 28.
–Field Level Media
