Lynx make it five straight wins by beating Chicago 83-66
The Minnesota Lynx gained more momentum heading into a couple of late-season road contests that could heavily factor into the team’s postseason positioning.
Napheesa Collier scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds, and the Lynx overcame a slow start with another dominant third quarter to beat Chicago 83-66 on Friday.
Alanna Smith added 11 points and a season-high 12 rebounds, and Courtney Williams scored 14 points and tied a season high with 10 assists.
The Lynx (28-9) have won five straight and 12 of 13. Their 28 wins ties the 2016 squad for most in franchise history, although that team played just a 34-game schedule.
Second in the WNBA standings, the Lynx have road games at New York Sunday and Connecticut Tuesday — No. 1 and No. 3 respectively in the league standings — before finishing at home Thursday against seven-win Los Angeles.
New York has all but wrapped up the top spot with the Lynx 1 1/2 games up on Connecticut, which played late Friday in Phoenix. The Sun has the tiebreaker over the Lynx.
Finishing in the top two would guarantee home-court advantage for the first two rounds of the postseason. Minnesota is 16-3 at Target Center. Plus, the No. 2 seed is projected to get Phoenix — losers in five of their past six games entering Friday — in the best-of-three first round whereas the third seed is projected to face Caitlin Clark and Indiana, one of the hotter teams in the league.
Fighting for the final playoff spot, Chicago (13-24) has lost nine of 11.
Down by six after one quarter, the Lynx led by five at the break before outscoring Chicago 24-9 in the third quarter for a 20-point cushion.
Williams scored six points and fed Smith for a layup during an 11-0 burst to start the second half for a 51-35 lead. It was 64-44 after three.
An 11-0 Sky run to open the fourth quarter made it a nine-point game, before Kayla McBride made a pair of free throws and Myisha Hines-Allen drained a 3-pointer, Minnesota’s first make after missing its first six shots of the quarter.
The Lynx finished the game on an 18-4 run.
The Sky dominated inside early, leading by as much as nine points. Fourteen of their first 22 points in the first quarter came in the paint and four more came via free throws.
Down 29-23 in the second quarter, Collier scored six points, McBride five and Williams had a couple layups off turnovers in a 17-2 Lynx run. However, Chicago scored the final four points of the quarter to get within 40-35 at the break.
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