Lynx block out Sun 77-70, even WNBA semifinal series at a game apiece

Before this WNBA semifinal playoff series began, given the way both teams play defense, people said it would be a slugfest.

There were moments Tuesday night at Target Center where it seemed that might actually happen. There was pushing and shoving, hard fouls. A good bit of jawing, a technical foul ….

… and a Lynx win.

Playing shut-down defense from start to finish, doing just enough offensively, and with Courtney Williams coming alive in the second half, the Lynx beat the Connecticut Sun 77-70, sending the best-of-five series back to Connecticut tied at one.

Game 3 is Friday night in Connecticut in what is now a best-of-three.

“We never fold,” said Williams, who struggled in the first half, scored 15 of her 17 points in the second. “We keep our composure. We have to keep it up there, man. We have to keep it up there.”

BOXSCORE: Lynx 77, Connecticut 70

In other words, playoff basketball. This game had that in abundance. Lynx guard Kayla McBride got called for a technical for shoving Marina Mabrey. Mabrey and Williams got into a jawing match during the game-turning third quarter, the gist of which, Williams said, was the suggestion that Mabrey could not guard her.

In other words, playoff basketball.

“We had an aggression about us that was necessary against these guys,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said.

After being on the wrong end of that in Sunday’s series-opening loss, the Lynx had the edge Tuesday. They held Connecticut to 36.4% shooting, holding the Sun to 49 points through three quarters.

“We weren’t happy about the way we approached the first game,” Lynx center Alanna Smith said. After hitting two of nine shots in the opener, she made six of eight overall, and three of four threes — including a huge one that stymied a fourth-quarter Connecticut run. She finished with 15 points, six rebounds, a block and two assists.

“We knew we had to take it to another level,” the Australian Olympian said. “We had to have each others’ backs. We had to go out there and fight for each other.”

Figuratively, of course. Barely.

On a night when Lynx forward Napheesa Collier, the WNBA MVP runner-up, did everything but score — she had 12 rebounds, five assists and four blocks but shot just 3-for-14 — the team used balance. McBride scored 11, and 16 points came from the bench. And the Sun paid for concentrating on Collier inside, hitting eight of 19 threes.

And the Sun just couldn’t muster the offense to match it. Alyssa Thomas had 18 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists and made seven of 14 shots, one of four starters in double figures. But the rest of the Sun starters went a combined 15-for-45.

Again the key might have been the third quarter. Up six at the half, the Lynx used a 22-19 third — Williams had half of those points — to push the lead to nine entering the fourth quarter. Less than three minutes into the fourth, that lead was 15.

And then the Lynx held on. The Sun got their deficit to eight and Collier hit two free throws. The lead was down to seven with 3:23 left, but Smith hit that three. Twice down the stretch, Williams had key buckets to keep the Sun at bay.

“They were the aggressors,” Connecticut coach Stephanie White said of the Lynx. “They had an answer to every run we had.”

They had to.

“We came ready to play, to defend the home court,’’ Collier said. “I just needed to help the team any way I can. … It’s going to be a long series. It’s hard. We have to grind it out.’’

On Tuesday, they kept grinding.

“We had to match their energy,” Williams said. “First game, they were chirping and chatting. We had to give it back to ‘em. That’s playoff basketball.”