A night after falling to the Los Angeles Sparks in a blowout loss at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, the Minnesota Lynx had to quickly turn their attention to the top team in the WNBA in the Seattle Storm on Friday night.
The big question entering the game at KeyArena in Seattle was if the veteran-heavy Lynx would be able to stick with the young and speedy Storm on the second night of a tough back-to-back on the road.
Minnesota stuck with Seattle early on in the game, holding the lead for a majority of the first half. But the up-and-coming Storm stepped on the gas in the second half and the Lynx couldn’t keep up, falling for the second night in a row by a score of 85-75.
Coming off a poor performance in the opening quarter on Thursday night in a loss in Los Angeles, the Lynx bounced back to put together a solid first quarter against the Storm.
Minnesota did nearly the exact opposite of what it did a night earlier to kick off the game, shooting 51 percent from the field to jump out to a 22-16 lead over Seattle. The Lynx finished the quarter on a 12-0 run to stretch their lead.
In the second quarter, Seattle bounced back strong to nearly even things up heading into halftime. The Storm made a late-quarter push to take a 21-16 advantage in the quarter, trialing Minnesota 38-37 at the break.
From the start of the second half, however, Seattle hit another gear that Minnesota couldn’t match. The Storm ran the floor well against the Lynx to grab the lead midway through the third and not look back. Seattle went on to outscore Minnesota 24-19 in the third quarter and 24-18 in the fourth to secure the victory.
One of the biggest factors in the game, outside of Minnesota’s 18 turnovers, was Seattle’s ability – and Minnesota’s inability – to hit shots from 3. The Storm finished with 12 3-pointers in the game, while the Lynx had five. Minnesota did take care of business on the glass, outrebounding Seattle 41-30.
Sylvia Fowles made her presence known in the game to lead the way for the Lynx, tallying 20 points and 16 rebounds to finish with her league-leading 16th double-double of the season.
Lindsay Whalen had a nice bounce-back game with 12 points and eight rebounds, while Rebekkah Brunson had 12 points and four assists for Minnesota. Maya Moore struggled for the second straight night, finishing with just seven points and six rebounds on 2-of-9 shooting.
MVP frontrunner Breanna Stewart took control of the game in the second half for Seattle, grabbing a team-best 20 points and seven rebounds. Former Lynx forward Natasha Howard had a nice all-around game of 15 points, six rebounds and five steals and both Jewell Loyd and Sue Bird each added 14 points.
With the loss, Minnesota has now lost two straight games and dropped to 15-12 on the season in the very tight WNBA standings. The Lynx, who were in third place before Thursday’s game against the Sparks, is now sitting tied for sixth place in the league standings with the regular season winding down.
Seattle improved to a WNBA-best 21-7 and clinched a spot in the postseason with the win, looking as the likely No. 1 overall seed in the WNBA Playoffs.
The Lynx won’t get much time off following Friday’s loss, returning back home to Minneapolis on Sunday when they host another top team in the WNBA, the Atlanta Dream, at 6 p.m. at Target Center.
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