Olivia Miles’ eyes lit up when she was asked to describe the components of a great pick-and-roll play.
Minnesota’s rookie point guard stood a couple feet from her teammate, Natasha Howard, who has thrived as the Lynx’s paint presence in pick-and-roll actions.
“Ooh, that’s a great question,” Miles said. “I think one is synergy: It’s knowing where she wants to be. And two: It’s on her and her getting me open first.
“So she gets me open first and then I get her open, if that makes sense. It’s like a one-two punch.”
The Lynx (15-5) will look to keep the punches coming when they tip off against the Connecticut Sun (4-16) on Monday evening in Minneapolis. It is the first game of a home-and-home series between the teams, who will travel to Connecticut for a follow-up game Wednesday evening.
Minnesota aims to bounce back from a 99-86 loss against the New York Liberty on Friday. Despite the setback, the Lynx have won five of their past seven games.
Napheesa Collier remained sidelined Friday as she recovers from offseason surgery on her ankle. She returned to practice last week, and her return is imminent.
Howard said she and her teammates cannot wait to welcome back Collier, who averaged 22.9 points and 7.3 rebounds last season. It is uncertain whether Collier will return Monday, but either way she is close to coming back to the court.
“We’re all excited that Phee is coming back pretty soon,” Howard said. “The things that she’s capable of doing, it’s going to be extremely fun out there with me and her on the floor, with (Miles) — how the rotation is going to be, it’s going to be really fun.”
Meanwhile, Connecticut would like to have more fun after a rough start to the season.
The Sun lost seven straight games before winning back-to-back contests against the Chicago Sky and Washington Mystics to end their June schedule. But they could not make it three wins in a row as they lost 86-83 to the Dallas Wings on Thursday.
“It’s a quick turnaround for us,” Sun forward Aaliyah Edwards said. “We’re playing Minnesota, so we’re going to have a ‘next game’ mentality and mindset. Going into that game — our biggest lead was 14 (against Dallas) — we can’t give that up.
“And that started from coming out of the half flat and letting them be the aggressor and then just closing out the game at the end.”
Leila Lacan leads Connecticut with 12.5 points per game to go along with a team-high 4.5 assists. Miles tops Minnesota with 18.5 points and 5.7 assists per contest while Howard scores 17.2 ppg, Courtney Williams is third with 15.9 ppg and Kayla McBride adds 14.8 ppg.
–Field Level Media
