After seven straight home losses to the Connecticut Sun, including a series-opening loss on Sunday, the Minnesota Lynx found their winning formula. And then some.
The Lynx won convincingly Tuesday, defeating the Sun 77-70 to even their WNBA semifinal series 1-1 as the series heads to Connecticut.
In a matchup between the top two defensive teams in the WNBA, it was Minnesota that snuffed out the competition. The Lynx held the Sun to 36.4% shooting from the field with 12 turnovers. No player was more valuable in that effort than WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Napheesa Collier, who finished the game with nine points, 12 rebounds, five assists, four blocks and a steal.
On the offensive side, it was a group effort led by 17 points from Courtney Williams. Every Lynx player who recorded a minute scored at least four points. Alyssa Thomas was again the star for the Sun, with 18 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and two blocks.
The Lynx’s win was likely welcome news for the WNBA, which watched every first-round series end in a sweep. The Sun’s win in Game 1 was the first road win of the entire postseason, but the league was likely more worried about another potential sweep, especially after the New York Liberty defeated the Las Vegas Aces hours earlier to take a 2-0 lead.
The game did not begin at a brisk pace. The two teams combined to miss their first 14 shots from the field, with the first make coming on a Courtney Williams lay-up 3 minutes and 38 seconds into the game. The dam didn’t break from there either, as the score was still only 12-10 Lynx by the end of the first quarter.
The Lynx instead opened their lead steadily, going from up two at the start of the second quarter to up four in the middle to up six at the end. They finally got the run they needed out of halftime, scoring the first seven points of the third quarter to take a double-digit lead.
The fourth quarter wasn’t entirely smooth sailing. The Sun cut the lead to single digits for much of the second half of the frame, which would have qualified as a nail-biter had a few plays ended differently. Chants of “Our House” rained down as the Lynx’s home losing streak to the Sun was finally snapped.
The Lynx and Sun will play Game 3 on Friday in Connecticut (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2).