Kristi Toliver leads Mystics past Lynx before record crowd at Target Center

Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve was joking, but only a bit. It was Wednesday afternoon, after the shrill echoes of the 17,934 Camp Day fans — a Lynx regular-season attendance record — had died down at Target Center and Reeve was talking about what she might do during the WNBA All-Star Game break.

"I think we left our team in Atlanta,'' she said. "Over the break I'm going to go back and see if I can't find us, and see if we can't be better out of the break.''

After Wednesday's 79-71 loss to Washington the Lynx have lost three straight games and four out of five, a stretch that began with a hard-to-fathom loss at last place Atlanta. After winning five of six games and rising as high as fourth in the WNBA, the Lynx are now 10-10 and in eighth.

The good news: The Lynx are still only 1½ games out of fourth. The bad: They're only 1½ games out of ninth and out of playoff position.

Reeve knew how dangerous the Mystics (12-6 after winning three straight) were, No. 1 in pretty much every meaningful offensive category. They don't need much help.

But the Lynx provided it.

A disastrous 8-plus minute stretch from the first quarter into the second put the Mystics up 19. And, basically, in control for good.

Mystics All-Star guard Kristi Toliver scored a season-high 32 points, getting 20 of those by halftime. Elena Delle Donne had 11, Natasha Cloud 10.

The Lynx got double-doubles from Sylvia Fowles (18 points, 12 rebounds) and Napheesa Collier (15 and 11). Lexie Brown came off the bench to score 19.

But the Lynx couldn't recover from the blows the Mystics landed early.

"We weren't playing together,'' Collier said. "We were on our own little islands by ourselves. We weren't doing the things we were supposed to do, especially defensively. And we had a tough time scoring.''

The Lynx were within 18-14 after Brown's basket with 3:47 left in the first quarter. Over the next 8-plus minutes Minnesota shot 1-for-13 with seven turnovers during a 17-2 Washington run that put the Mystics up 35-16 with 5:39 left in the half.

"I said before the game the one thing we couldn't do is have a scoring drought on these guys,'' Reeve said. "We were at 16 for quite a while. They got their separation there.''

The Lynx trimmed a 20-point Mystics lead to 12 by scoring the final eight points of the half, another 20-point deficit to 12 by scoring the final eight points of the third quarter.

Down 19 midway through the fourth, Stephanie Talbot scored six points in a 12-0 run that pulled the Lynx within seven on Fowles' basket with 1:24 left.

But that's as close as the Lynx got on in an afternoon in which Washington turned 21 Lynx turnovers into 20 points.

"We finally started executing the game plan,'' said Brown, who scored 14 points in the second half. "Sometimes when you get punched in the mouth like that you just start playing basketball. But it wasn't enough. We need to do that from the start.''

So now Fowles, Collier and Odyssey Sims will head to Las Vegas for the All Star Game. Out of the break Reeve will go back to the drawing board to prepare for the final 14 games.

"I think it's wide open,'' she said. "Each team we've played — outside of the game today — we've felt we could to go toe-to-toe with any team we played. There is an opportunity for this team.''