The Minnesota Lynx faced a tough decision Sunday on the final possession of their game in Chicago. Focus on point guard Courtney Vandersloot, who has this year made multiple game-winners, or worry about other capable scorers like Emma Meesseman and Candace Parker?
Minnesota picked the latter. Vandersloot took advantage by draining a 25-footer as time expired to give the Sky an 88-85 win and drop the Lynx to 5-14.
The Lynx will try to recover from that gut punch Tuesday night when they host the Dallas Wings in Minneapolis.
“We gotta learn how to be a team that can make plays at the end defensively, or really offensively or defensively, make plays to win these kinds of games,” coach Cheryl Reeve said. “That’s the next step for this team.”
While Minnesota is tied for the WNBA’s worst record with Indiana, it also could be much better. Nine of its losses are by eight points or fewer and six have been by four points or fewer, including the last four.
One reason is the Lynx’s turnover issues. They had 18 in Chicago, resulting in 27 points. That negated Minnesota’s 58.9 percent field goal shooting.
“If we weren’t scoring, we were turning it over,” Reeve said.
Meanwhile, Dallas (9-10) is coming off a disappointing 83-72 home loss Saturday night against Phoenix, a team it beat twice earlier this year. The Wings opened up a 10-point lead after one quarter but were outscored 70-49 over the last three periods by an opponent that cut 17.3 ppg scorer Tina Charles prior to the game.
Dallas got 25 points from Arike Ogunbowale, but she was just 10 of 23 from the field and 3 of 13 on 3-pointers. Isabelle Harrison added 15 points and 10 rebounds, but no one else got to double figures in scoring.
The Wings were also without Allisha Gray, who missed her first game of the season with an ankle injury. Gray averages 14.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game.
“She’s our leading player with the most minutes and her consistency, defensively and offensively, was huge,” coach Vickie Johnson told the Dallas Morning News. “We missed that a lot today.”
Ogunbowale leads the team in scoring at 19.5 ppg, although she makes just 40.3 percent from the field.
–Field Level Media
