It's now a best-of-three in the WNBA semifinals for the Minnesota Lynx. The Connecticut Sun took Game 1 from the Lynx in Minneapolis but the Lynx rebounded to win 77-70 in Game 2 on Tuesday night.
Cheryl Reeve, who won the league’s Coach of the Year for Minnesota, has been in this position before. She has faith in her team.
“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,” said Reeve, who has won four WNBA titles with the Lynx. “That’s the only way. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it.”
This was always going to be a tight matchup between two teams at the top of the league all season.
“This is the way a series is, right? Obviously our goal is to win every game, but when you can steal one on the opponent’s home court that’s important,” Connecticut coach Stephanie White said. “I do think that we’re two veteran teams, we’re two very similar teams, and your defense always travels. So whether you’re home or whether you’re on the road, I’m not really sure that it matters.”
Both Minnesota and Connecticut are good defensive teams and White knows that the winner of the series will probably be the team that has a better shooting percentage.
“We’re going to be fine. We’re going to be ready to go. We’re going to make our adjustments and look forward to Friday,” she said.
TICKETS
The Minnesota Lynx announced tickets for a potential Game 5 of the WNBA Semifinals of Lynx playoffs (if necessary) this Friday at 10:00 a.m. at lynxbasketball.com/playoffs or by calling 612-673-8400. Tickets start at $37.
GAME THREE PREVIEW
Minnesota Lynx (30-10, 14-6 Western Conference) at Connecticut Sun (28-12, 14-6 Eastern Conference)
Uncasville, Connecticut; Friday, 6:30 p.m.
BETMGM SPORTSBOOK: LINE Sun -1.5; over/under is 151
BOTTOM LINE: The Connecticut Sun square off against the Minnesota Lynx.
The Sun are 13-6 in home games. Connecticut ranks ninth in the WNBA with 33.5 rebounds led by Alyssa Thomas averaging 8.4.
The Lynx have gone 14-5 away from home. Minnesota ranks third in the Western Conference with 7.4 offensive rebounds per game led by Napheesa Collier averaging 2.8.
Connecticut makes 44.4% of its shots from the field this season, which is 3.4 percentage points higher than Minnesota has allowed to its opponents (41.0%). Minnesota averages 9.5 made 3-pointers per game this season, 3.0 more made shots on average than the 6.5 per game Connecticut gives up.
TOP PERFORMERS: DeWanna Bonner is averaging 15.1 points and six rebounds for the Sun.
Courtney Williams is averaging 11.1 points and 5.5 assists for the Lynx.
LAST 10 GAMES: Sun: 7-3, averaging 81.0 points, 34.2 rebounds, 22.6 assists, 6.4 steals and 4.9 blocks per game while shooting 44.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 71.5 points per game.
Lynx: 8-2, averaging 80.4 points, 33.2 rebounds, 21.8 assists, 7.0 steals and 3.9 blocks per game while shooting 45.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 75.0 points.
INJURIES: Sun: Tiffany Mitchell: out (illness).
Lynx: None listed.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.