The WNBA’s hottest and coldest teams square off on Thursday afternoon when the Minnesota Lynx and Dallas Wings meet in Arlington, Texas.
The Lynx (13-3) head to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex after a 94-89 win in New York on Tuesday in the Commissioner’s Cup final. Bridget Carleton scored 23 points on 6-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc and Napheesa Collier added 21 points for Minnesota.
Reserve Cecilia Zandalasini scored 15 points, Kayla McBride had 12 and Courtney Williams racked up 11 to go along with eight assists for the surging Lynx.
While that game did not count in the WNBA standings, it did net Minnesota the winner’s prize of $500,000 and kept the Lynx’s impressive winning streak alive. Minnesota has won nine of its past 10 games in league play, a run that includes six straight victories.
“This just shows all the hard work we put in, and there’s a lot more to come,” Collier said. “This is amazing at the end of the day, but we have more things that we want to do. We got to lock in. We want to achieve more things than this, bigger things at the end of the season.”
The Wings (3-13) are in free fall after losing 11 straight games. They most recently dropped a 92-84 decision in Washington on Sunday in the second game of a back-to-back against the Mystics.
Natasha Howard led Dallas with 26 points, Arike Ogunbowale added 23 and Monique Billings had eight to go along with 14 rebounds off the bench. The Wings led by 10 points in the second quarter and were up 51-46 at the break before being outscored 29-14 in the third period.
The Wings have been shackled with injuries, the latest a broken finger by forward Maddy Siegrist. Dallas coach Latricia Trammell said the team has to keep to its “next-woman-up” mentality.
“I honestly haven’t seen anything like this,” Trammell said. “We’re always talking about ‘control what we can control’ and try to let go of the uncontrollables. It’s all about breathing life into one another.”
To help with its depth, Dallas signed former Wing (and area native) Odyssey Sims to a salary cap hardship contract. The 31-year-old guard played in 28 games (zero starts) for the Wings last year, scoring 2.0 points and dishing out 2.2 assists per game.
The Lynx have taken the first two games of the four-game season series with Dallas, winning 87-76 on June 2 and 90-78 on June 17.
–Field Level Media
