Lynx fall to Sun 73-70 in Game 1 of WNBA semifinals

Sunday night at Target Center, one of the best-passing teams in the WNBA struggled, at times, to move the ball. The league’s best three-point shooting team went 5-for-20 from behind the arc. The team that worked so hard for home-court advantage in the WNBA semifinals gave that edge away.

Outscored 16-8 over the final 10 minutes, making just four of 18 shots in the final quarter, the second-seeded Lynx lost 73-70 to Connecticut in Game 1 of the best-of-five WNBA semifinals.

Game 2 is at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at Target Center.

“We had open shots that we missed,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. “There was a little bit of that. We had opportunities where we were open.”

Bridget Carleton made three of six three-pointers and scored 17. The rest of the Lynx on threes? Just 2-for-14. Napheesa Collier scored 19 points with nine rebounds and four assists. But she was hounded all night by a Connecticut defense that took advantage of cold shooting nights from Courtney Williams (3-for-12) and Alanna Smith (2-for-9).

The Lynx like to force teams to spread their defense out with their outside shooting. The fact that few of those shots were falling had a cascading effect on the number of Sun jerseys Collier had to navigate every time she got the ball.

“Courtney Williams has to be able to score for us,” Reeve said. “A lot of her shot attempts are ones we usually see go down. They just weren’t able to find the bottom of the net. Our offense put a lot of pressure on our defense.”

The question this series was: Which of the top two defenses in the WNBA would do a better job of taking the other team out of its rhythm?

The two traded that honor through three quarters — 30 minutes, 10 lead changes and seven ties. For the game, both teams shot under 42%. Down four at halftime the Lynx came out and held Connecticut to 31 second-half points.

Reeve loved all of that.

But after again winning in the third quarter, after turning that four-point halftime deficit into a five-point lead entering the fourth, the shots stopped falling almost completely.

“Everyone in that locker room has full trust and faith in each other,” Carleton said. “It’s a long series. It’s five games for a reason. We fully believe we’ll play better Tuesday and come out with a win.”

BOXSCORE: Connecticut 73, Lynx 70

Alyssa Thomas had 17 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists for the Sun, one away from her second double-double of the season against Minnesota. Marina Mabrey, acquired on the trade deadline to add three-point shooting, went 6-for-11 on threes and scored a game-high 20 points.

But in the fourth? Four of five starters scored for the Sun while Collier had six of Minnesota’s final eight points.

To the Lynx’s credit, they played defense to the end, holding the Sun to 16 points on 7-for-20 shooting in the fourth. Smith had eight rebounds, four assists, five blocks. Three Lynx starters had multiple steals.

But the shots wouldn’t fall.

Still, with 5:39 left, Collier hit a 15-footer to give the Lynx a one-point lead. But Thomas hit a cutting DiJonai Carrington for a layup, Collier missed at the other end and Bonner scored in transition and the Sun never trailed again.

Connecticut was 2-1 vs. Minnesota during the regular season; they were the only team the Lynx lost the season series to. Now the Sun — which eliminated the Lynx in the first round of the playoffs last year — has won three of four.

“This was a tough, grind-it-out victory,” Sun coach Stephanie White said. “We knew that’s how it was going to be. That’s how the whole series will be. These are two great defensive teams.”

The Lynx responded to a Game 1 loss with a victory in Game 2 in Connecticut last year. There won’t be much time for adjustments with Tuesday’s game looming. Reeve is convinced the team will find the bottom of the net more often in Game 2.

“That was 40 of 200 minutes,” she said of the five-game series. “That’s the good news for us. We’ll be back Tuesday and we’ll play better.”