The Minnesota Lynx have received two major WNBA awards, with point guard Olivia Miles as Rookie of the Year and Cheryl Reeve as Coach of the Year for a league-record fifth time.
The WNBA announced the awards on Monday.
Miles was an unanimous selection by a national panel of sports writers and broadcasters covering the league, after she set the WNBA rookie scoring record. Miles played in 40 of 44 games and averaged 19.8 points, 6.0 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals while shooting 49.2% from the field, 38.8% from 3-point range and 87% from the free-throw line.
Miles, who was the second overall pick in the draft out of TCU, became the sixth winner of the award in Lynx history, following Betty Lennox (2000), Seimone Augustus (2006), Maya Moore (2011), Napheesa Collier (2019) and Crystal Dangerfield (2020).
Reeve, who is also president of basketball operations for the club, previously won the award in 2011, 2016, 2020 and 2024. She guided the Lynx to WNBA titles in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017.
Reeve received 40 of 74 votes from media panel. Golden State's Natalie Nakase, who won the award last year, finished second with 20 votes. Washington's Sydney Johnson was third with 14 votes.
The Lynx are traveling to New York for an elimination game in their best-of-three first-round playoff series on Tuesday. The top-seeded Lynx lost the opener at home 91-75 to the 2024 champion Liberty on Sunday, making game two a must-win for the top-seeded Lynx. If there's a game 3 it would be back in Minneapolis.
Miles has struggled some against New York this season, and despite her historic rookie year, Reeve said her difficulty in her first playoff game shouldn't come as a surprise.
"It's hard being a rookie in your first playoffs against a matchup of a team that's been a challenge for her," Reeve said. "So I think she's feeling it right now, but this is what we expected. It's not easy. And there's a lot that goes with being a really good player. Some of it is being targeted and focused and trying to put you in your tougher spots, and she's a smart player. She'll figure it out."
Reeve also signaled that her team has really had a difficult time figuring out how to score against the Liberty, which was very evident in Game 1.
"Well, I think when you When you work through a possession to get easy shots, you tend to make more of them," Reeve added. "We shot in the second half, I think, I don't know what the final tally was, but I think 33% in the second half. That really puts a lot of pressure on your defense, sucks the life out of you, you know, and then they get easy shots. So that combination is just really, really bad and taking the ball to the net, start over, do it again. Not finding the easy ones at our end has really been a problem against these guys this season. We have another game to try to figure it out so we can get back home here."
Minnesota Lynx (33-11, 20-3 Western Conference) at New York Liberty (26-18, 13-7 Eastern Conference)
New York; Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. CDT
LINE: Lynx -2.5; over/under is 173.5
WNBA PLAYOFFS FIRST ROUND:
BOTTOM LINE: The New York Liberty square off against the Minnesota Lynx.
The Liberty are 14-8 in home games. New York ranks fifth in the Eastern Conference with 8.1 offensive rebounds per game led by Jonquel Jones averaging 2.0.
The Lynx are 18-4 in road games. Minnesota has a 3-3 record in one-possession games.
New York's average of 10.2 made 3-pointers per game this season is only 0.9 more made shots on average than the 9.3 per game Minnesota allows. Minnesota has shot at a 47.7% rate from the field this season, 2.9 percentage points greater than the 44.8% shooting opponents of New York have averaged.
TOP PERFORMERS: Sabrina Ionescu is averaging 14.6 points and 4.7 assists for the Liberty. Breanna Stewart is averaging 19.6 points over the last 10 games.
Natasha Howard is averaging 14.8 points, 7.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.6 steals for the Lynx. Olivia Miles is averaging 14.8 points and 4.0 rebounds while shooting 45.1% over the past 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Liberty: 6-4, averaging 86.1 points, 36.6 rebounds, 20.6 assists, 5.7 steals and 4.5 blocks per game while shooting 45.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 81.8 points per game.
Lynx: 5-5, averaging 83.0 points, 32.1 rebounds, 20.7 assists, 6.9 steals and 3.8 blocks per game while shooting 44.3% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 84.1 points.
INJURIES: Liberty: Satou Sabally: out for season (head).
Lynx: Anastasiia Olairi Kosu: out (foot), Emma Cechova: out for season (knee).
