Bridget Carleton wasn’t dejected after the Connecticut Sun beat the Minnesota Lynx 73-70 in their Game 1 loss to the Sun. “Everyone in our locker room has full trust and faith in each other,” Carleton said, “It’s a long series.”
The Lynx had almost everything go wrong for them in the first game of the semi-finals, which should give hope that they will be able to turn the series around with little adjustments.
“I don’t think either team is going to make a bunch of adjustments,” she said. “We are who we are… there’s things we can do better.”
That is likely the best analysis for the Game 1 loss. Many things went wrong, but the Lynx didn’t play their best. The Sun rebounded Minnesota 39-32, out-assisted 24-16, and gave up 9 threes.
As a result, Connecticut shot 40.9% from three. Marina Mabrey finished 6 for 11, making more threes than the entire Lynx team (5).
“Oh that, yeah, that was fun, Mabrey said. “That’s what they brought me here to do, so I’m going to get out there and shoot the ball from three.”
Meanwhile, the Lynx had critical parts of their offense uncharacteristically underperform. Courtney Williams shot a WNBA-best 46.2% from mid-range. She went 1 for 8 from mid-range and only 3 for 12 overall, shooting 0 for 4 in the fourth quarter. Statistically speaking, this was Williams’s worst performance since the Olympic break. It’s unlikely to happen again; Williams has shown the ability to rise to the occasion.
Alanna Smith also had an off-game and will return to form. She performed her typical masterclass of a defensive game that earned her All-Defensive Second-Team honors.
However, she shot 2 of 9 and missed her four three-point attempts. She also had two turnovers, one of which was when she sailed a pass over McBride’s head into the crowd. With another, she attempted to pass to Collier on a drive that resulted in a scrum for the ball.
“Lan will bounce back,” said Reeve. “Offensively, we didn’t play our best, and we will be better on Tuesday.”
All the shortcomings combined to cause the Lynx to have an uncharacteristic collapse in the fourth quarter, where they only scored eight points on 4 of 18 shooting. They allowed the Sun to get back into the game and steal Game 1 at Target Center, despite the Lynx holding the Sun to 7 of 20 shooting for 16 points in the fourth quarter. Even with their struggles, they still had many opportunities to win the game.
The Lynx held the Sun to only four points over the last 4:44 of the game, holding Connecticut to 2 of 8 to close the game. With the game at 69-68 and the Sun in the lead, Minnesota missed on four consecutive shots and failed to take the lead. Even the last play, with the Lynx trailing by three, was a microcosm of the game. They had 11 seconds to set up the offense coming out of a time-out. Unfortunately, a broken play resulted in Collier’s fadeaway heave as the horn sounded.
Minnesota should win Game 2 if its stars play to their standard. Williams and Smith combined for only 14 points on 5 of 21 shooting. That’s down from 21 points in the regular season on a much better 8.7 makes on 19 attempts. That improvement alone likely would have resulted in a Game 1 win. Even the 70 total points ties the fourth-lowest total of the 43 games they have played in the season and playoffs.
The Lynx were disappointed in their performance, as evidenced by their comments after the game. Still, multiple major pieces of their offense failed, and they stalled out in the fourth quarter. Thanks to their defense, they lost by only three points. Minnesota had a Lemony Snickett-level amount of unfortunate events. They expect more of themselves and should be able to regroup for Tuesday to win Game 2.
