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After performing strong for months, the Minnesota Lynx continue to prove they are here for it all.
The team holds the best record in the WNBA currently, with 32 wins and just eight losses this season.
There’s four games remaining in the league’s regular season, and while the Lynx were the first team to clinch a playoff spot, the team remains committed to closing the season off strong.
Monday night, the Lynx rallied against the Dallas Wings for a 96-71 win.
Star-player Napheesa Collier had 25 points and Natisha Hiedeman got her first double-double with 20 points and 10 assists.
This was also Minnesota native and first overall draft pick Paige Bueckers’ second game in her home state after a Wings’ loss in May. Now, nearing the end of her first WNBA season, she is a favorite for Rookie of the Year and fifth in the league for average points per game.
Monday, she had 17 points and two assists. While the game’s outcome wasn’t favorable for her team, Bueckers enjoys the challenge.
“Honestly, I just really enjoy competing against this Minnesota Lynx team. They’re just like everything you want to be as a team and to compete against them, I know I met a lot of them at all stars, it's just, it’s fun,” Bueckers said.
Coach Cheryl Reeve was impressed by Bueckers game, seeing her only a handful of times this season.
“She’s very much improved from the first time we saw her in terms of how she gets her scoring attempts. She learned how much the team needs her to take shots,” Reeve said. “She’s figured out the league pretty quickly. And, you know, obviously she was tough cover.”
In August, the Lynx acquired Dijonai Carrington, a guard from the Wings, in exchange for forward Diamond Miller, guard Karlie Samuelson and Minnesota’s 2027 second-round draft pick. This was Carrington’s first matchup against her former teammates since joining Minnesota. Bueckers was glad to see her again.
“Basketball has a great way of connecting people and building relationships so we got extremely close. She kind of embraced who I was and my annoying side as a rookie,” Bueckers said after the game. “She just let me be me and let me annoy her, and we have a great relationship that way.”
As for her time in Minnesota, Carrington stepped into the Lynx team with ease, Reeve said.
“We've enjoyed having Nai as an option off the bench, as we know from the very beginning, and she keeps growing in that role, and she’ll be a big reason why we can be successful in a larger scale,” Reeve said.
Carrington and Natisha Hiedeman played alongside each other on the Connecticut Sun, a history that Reeve said has supported the both of them.
Reeve said the Hiedeman’s first career double-double came at a great time.
“She was really locked in, you know, playing early in the offense. So I was really, really happy for T — career high in assists and also the first double double of her career,” Reeve said. “T just fought tooth and nail. And Courtney had a good floor game as well with nine assists. So those two players getting 19 of our, what did we have, 29 assists? Pretty impressive.”
Carrington had to leave the game after her sublex shoulder acted up.
Queen Phee’s return
She was out for seven games last month with an ankle injury but remains the front-runner for MVP. In her first game back on Aug. 24, Collier made an incredible return against the Indiana Fever where she had 32 points and nine rebounds. Collier shot 11 for 19 from the field. 46 seconds into the third quarter, she brought the Lynx to a 12-point lead.
During practice after the match up, Collier said that while her ankle was sore after the game, she continues to get the stiffness out.
“It feels good. We don't have a lot of practices left, so I’m trying to get back in the groove of things and tighten some things up for our team,” Collier said.
This was no surprise to coach Cheryl Reeve.
“Going into the game, expectations were kind of like ‘knock the rust off. It may take a little bit.’ That was her version of knocking the rust off,” Reeve said. “Phee doesn't need reps, you know, she can get her catches in places that she likes. She wakes up, comes out of the bed, I think, well, out of the womb with a little fall-away. I think she just came out shooting that.”
Monday night, Collier had another 25 points, one assist and three rebounds. She even passed Hall of Famer Sylvia Fowles in all time team scoring.
“Efficient, that’s what Phee does,” Reeve said.
Post-season look ahead
After coming off a tough defeat in the WNBA Finals last year, the team has its sights set on making it all the way. Collier says that after being overlooked to even make the playoffs in last year’s predictions, she knows the Lynx have what it takes to achieve a spot in the finals again.
“We kind of had an idea of what we were capable of, and we know that we are championship caliber, caliber team,” Collier said.
Collier says rebounds are where the team should be focused before playoffs.
“I think we’ve stepped our defense up, especially these past, like two games,” she said. “We’re getting really good stops and making a really great first effort, but finishing it with a rebound, I think, is what’s going to set us off over the top.”
They enter playoffs with a mix of old and new talent. Alongside Collier, starters Bridget Carleton, Alanna Smith, Courtney Williams and Kayla McBride prepare for what could be an unprecedently intense post-season run. McBride was out Monday for rest.
Earlier this summer, the Lynx signed 6-foot-4 center Maria Kliundikova, the 11th overall pick by the Los Angeles Sparks in the 2018 WNBA draft. On Monday, she got seven rebounds.
“We're ready. We keep working and our mindset, it's work and concentrate on our offense and defense and just focus on the team,” Kliundikova said.
Alongside Carrington and Kliundikova, another new player is 20-year-old Anastasiia Olairi Kosu from Russia.
To carry the momentum into the playoffs, Reeve says, they need to stay healthy and strong: “No slippage.”
The Lynx play at the Aces on Thursday. The Wings face off at the Valkyries.
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