Courtney Williams scored 17 points, and Alanna Smith added 15 points to help the Lynx overcome a tough night for star player Napheesa Collier and defeat the Connecticut Sun 77-70. This win evened the best-of-five WNBA semifinal series at one game each on Tuesday.
Collier, who had scored 80 points in the two-game sweep of Phoenix in the first round, managed only nine points on 3-for-14 shooting. She led the Lynx with 12 rebounds and five assists, willing to let her teammates take the lead against a tough opponent.
“We’ve got to match their energy. In the first game, they were chirping and chatting, so you have to give it back to them,” Williams said. “Playoff basketball, man.”
Alyssa Thomas scored 18 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and provided seven assists for the Sun, who struggled with their shooting, hitting just 5 of 20 from 3-point range. DeWanna Bonner added 17 points, while Marina Mabrey contributed 15 points on 4-for-14 shooting after scoring 20 points in the first game.
“We weren’t happy with how we approached the first game. I think we played OK, just enough to lose by 3. We knew we had to step it up and support each other,” said Smith, who played with Williams for Chicago last year.
Connecticut will host Game 3 on Friday and Game 4 on Sunday. If needed, Game 5 would take place in Minnesota on October 8. New York currently leads the defending champion Las Vegas 2-0 in the other semifinal series.
The Lynx never lost two home games in a row this season, finishing with a 30-10 record as the No. 2 seed in the playoffs. Their 73-70 loss in Game 1 clearly motivated them for a fierce response in this physical matchup that sometimes felt more like football than basketball.
Myisha Hines-Allen made an off-balance bank shot from the corner just before halftime, giving the Lynx a 36-30 lead and some extra energy as they headed to the break.
“They were the aggressor tonight. They were aggressive on the defensive end. They were physical. They wouldn’t let us get into our offense. They responded to every run,” said Sun coach Stephanie White.
Smith, known for her shot-blocking skills and playing for her fourth team in four seasons, has revived her career in Minnesota under coach Cheryl Reeve after being released by Indiana two years ago.
She hit a 3-pointer early in the third quarter, giving the Lynx a 41-30 lead and prompting a timeout from Connecticut.
Williams scored 11 points in the third quarter, contributing half of her team’s total and shifting the frustration more onto the Sun in the second half after the Lynx had their own challenging moments earlier.
Reeve has won four WNBA titles with a legendary team that is now gone, and this is the first real playoff test for the current players.
“I believe to be successful you do have to experience adversity. You have to get through the adversity, go through it, go through the lumps, bumps, all of that to get through the promised land,” Reeve said. “That’s the only way. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.”
The two top defensive teams from the regular season were on full display during a tough first quarter, where the first 14 shots missed the mark and both teams had two turnovers in less than four minutes.
Collier faced constant double-teams and started the game 1 for 6. The Sun worked hard to not only keep the four-time All-Star from her favorite spots but also to get under her skin.
Mabrey applied extra pressure at one point when she and Collier were fighting for a loose ball near the paint, leading to a stare down between the two players.
“It’s playoffs, so it’s going to be physical; it’s going to be tense. It’s win or go home,” Bonner said. “Everybody wants it, so emotions are high. It’s just two competitive teams going after it.”
Later in the second quarter, Kayla McBride pushed her forearm into Mabrey’s neck while driving to the basket. McBride received a technical foul after both players, who played at Notre Dame two years apart, exchanged words and bumped into each other on their way back.
McBride scored 11 points for the Lynx, helping them recover from a rough start where they shot just 2 for 15 from the field, even though Collier struggled to find her rhythm.
“We got into our switches. We tried to make catches difficult. We tried to make shots difficult. But certainly they showed as a team why they’ve been successful. They’re so balanced,” White said.
“Yes, we were able to limit Phee, but they got off on the 3-point line and that’s something we have to remedy. We’ve got to keep them off the offensive glass.”
