A good while after Tuesday's game had ended at Target Center, Lynx center Sylvia Fowles was getting ready to leave the team's locker room. A couple lockers down, Maya Moore was talking in low, measured tones.
Fowles was quiet, frustrated. Emotional. Fowles cares deeply about what she does for her teammates, and this time she felt she hadn't done enough.
"Yes, I'm frustrated,'' Fowles said, her voice cracking, a tear in her eye. "Because coach [Cheryl] Reeve puts so much into us, you know? Maya and I have to go out and carry the team. For us to have an off night like that?''
The Lynx, riding a seven-game winning streak, ran headfirst into a wall Tuesday, losing 71-59 to an Indiana team that won for just the second time this season. Minnesota reached the midway point of its season at 10-7, with a slow start replaced by a winning streak followed by …
This?
This was the Lynx's lowest point total since an 87-59 loss to the Sparks in Los Angeles on June 21, 2013. It's their lowest point total in a home games since July 27 of 2010 — Reeve's first season in Minnesota — in a 71-58 loss here to L.A. Tuesday the Lynx shot 22-for-67 (32.8 percent), their lowest percentage since shooting 27.5 percent in a two-point win over San Antonio in 2011.
"There is no question there is more talent in the Lynx locker room,'' Reeve said. "And no question that the Indiana Fever played much harder in every facet of the game. And hard work beats talent.''
It did Tuesday. Other than Rebekkah Brunson (13 points and 12 rebounds) and Seimone Augustus (3-for-5 shooting), it was an off night for just about everyone.