The WNBA playoffs begin on Sunday, and the Minnesota Lynx have earned the top seed.

Minnesota Lynx’s Bridget Carleton (6) puts up a shot against Indiana Fever’s Brianna Turner during the first half of a WNBA basketball game, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

But don’t tell coach Cheryl Reeve that her squad can simply coast to the finish line.

“More than anything it’s understanding who we are,” she said pregame Tuesday. “More than anything it’s shoring up what we consider areas that need to be shored up. I’m obviously not going to reveal all those things, but we’ve taken a deep dive on ourselves. We’re trying to use these games to get a little bit better to gain some momentum going into the playoffs.”

And her reaction after the 83-72 loss in Indiana?

“Thursday is another chance to see if we can play Lynx basketball,” she said of the team’s final game of the regular season at home against Golden State. “Hopefully we’ll give our fans what they deserve.”

The Lynx are still a league-best 33-10, but 5-5 in their past 10 outings and 3-3 in their past six.

Minnesota made 33 of 74 shots (44.6%), but a season-low two on 20 3-point attempts. The league’s top 3-point shooting team at 38%, the Lynx missed their first 13 tries, including all 12 in the first half.

“We were wide-open on most,” Reeve said.

“They just played harder than us today, which we know every time we put on this jersey is not acceptable. The Lynx as a whole, we hold ourselves to a standard, and regardless of the shots going in or not, we didn’t compete,” said Jessica Shepard, who was 8 of 10 from the field for 16 points to go along with seven rebounds to lead the Lynx.

She added, “Playoffs are coming, and there’s a lot of teams that are playing really well. What we did tonight is not going to get us where we want to go.”

Shepard started because leading scorer and potential league Most Valuable Player Napheesa Collier got the night off for rest purposes. DiJonai Carrington missed her third straight game with a subluxed left shoulder, but Reeve said it’s trending in the right direction.

No one on a team playing its third straight road game will use either absence as a reason for allowing Indiana to shoot 48.4%, including 57.6% in the opening half. The Fever (24-20) scored the first 10 points of the game, added a 9-0 run late in the frame, and led by as many as 17 points in the second quarter.

“If you don’t make shots you got to find a way to go, ‘Hey, let’s just work through this, let’s just weather the storm.’ How do you do that? You get a little tougher, you get a little harder to play against, you defend. For whatever reason we lacked that mindset,” Reeve said.

Maria Kliundikova had 12 points off the bench, Alanna Smith had 11 points, and Courtney Williams contributed eight points and five assists.

Minnesota scored the first nine points of the second half to make it a four-point game, but the Fever scored 21 of the next 29 points, and the Lynx were down 70-53. The Indiana lead reached 24 in the fourth quarter.

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