The Lynx will be patient with highly touted rookie Diamond Miller, but that means finding more offensive punch from their starting lineup outside of Napheesa Collier.
Collier's 20 points paced the Lynx on Tuesday, but they struggled to finish after she fouled out late, resulting in a 19-point second-half lead squandered in an 83-77 loss to the Atlanta Dream in front of a frustrated crowd of 7,803 at Target Center.
When Collier fouled out with 2 minutes, 23 seconds left to play, Cheryl Reeve's team couldn't figure out which player the offense was supposed to go through in crunch time. In her second regular-season WNBA game, Miller had eight points on 3-for-10 shooting.
"Identity-wise we're still getting to know each other," said Reeve, who watched her squad shoot 5-for-19 from the field and get outscored 24-10 in the fourth quarter.
The Lynx (0-2) fell behind for good when Aari McDonald's three-pointer gave Atlanta an 80-77 lead with 43 seconds left. They went 0-for-6 from the field to end the game after Collier's last basket with 3:14 remaining.
"This game is a tough one because we should've won," Collier said. "Atlanta saw that we were struggling and took advantage of that. But we can't have quarters like that again."
The Lynx's collapse followed their season-opening 77-66 loss to the Chicago Sky on Friday, when they were outscored 22-3 in the second quarter.
Collier scored the first 10 points of the third quarter Tuesday. Miller nailed a turnaround jumper to give the Lynx a 62-43 lead in the second half.