Guru’s WNBA Report: Minnesota Whips Washington While Los Angeles and Las Vegas Also Glide to Easy Wins

By ROB KNOX (@knoxrob1)

 

Veteran Washington Mystics head coach Mike Thibault apologized to the media for not having many answers following his squad’s 68-48 loss to the Minnesota Lynx Tuesday night at IMG Academy.

 

“You tell me,” Thibault said after being asked about his offense. “I don’t know. I am sorry not to have a lot of answers for you right now, but I really don’t. 

 

“We were awful, didn’t make shots, and rushed things. Back to basketball fundamentals. We are missing a rhythm to the game right now.”

 

On the bright side, the Mystics limited the Lynx to four points in the third quarter and recorded 14 assists on their 18 baskets.

 

Unfortunately, the Mystic offense returned the favor in the final period by tallying a grand total of four points. They made 2 of 19 shots in the last 10 minutes.

 

The four points scored in the third and fourth quarters, respectively scored by the Lynx and Mystics tied for fifth-fewest in a quarter in WNBA history.

 

It was the third time in franchise history the Mystics held an opponent to four or fewer points since the WNBA went to four quarters in 2006. 

 

Also, Washington held the Lynx to 20 second-half points. The last time the Mystics held an opponent to 20 or fewer points after intermission was against the Liberty in 2015.

 

“Minnesota is a really a good defensive team,” Thibault said. “They are. They pressured and bothered us early. We got a better effort in the third quarter. Our bench group played pretty good defense, but we can’t score right now.

 

“We’re trying to learn how to play faster as a group. 

 

 “Running half-court against their pressure was not the best way. We don’t know to play fast yet the right way. We don’t know how to move the ball quickly side to side.”

 

Myisha Hines-Allen led three Washington players in double figures with 12 points. Tianna Hawkins and Emma Meeseman added 10 points each for the Mystics. 

 

The triumvirate combined for 66 percent of the Mystics points. It wasn’t enough as Washington made 29 percent of their shots (18-for-61).

 

The Mystics had momentum entering the fourth quarter after slicing a 21-point halftime deficit to 52-44 following Hawkins’ 3-pointer from the top of the key as the third-quarter buzzer sounded.

 

That good feeling didn’t translate into the final 10 minutes for the Mystics, who dropped their fifth consecutive contest. 

 

“We need to figure out how to play together and keep the ball moving. It’s been times when we’ve been good and then’s there other times when the ball gets stuck.

 

“We have to be consistent with sharing the ball and moving side to side. We’re in a situation where we have a lot of things to figure out.”

 

In raising its overall record to 6-2, Minnesota scored the first 10 points of the fourth quarter. 

 

The Lynx welcomed Sylvia Fowles back to its lineup. 

 

The living legend delivered a typically-dominant performance, scoring 16 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. 

 

For Fowles, this was the fourth double-double of the season and the 167th of her career.

 

Crystal Dangerfield reached double digits in scoring for the sixth time in Minnesota’s eight games this season 12 points. Rachel Banham finished with 10 points for the Lynx. Napheesa Collier packaged eight points, a career-high 12 rebounds, and three assists.

 

Fowles didn’t play in the Lynx’s 97-81 loss to Los Angeles this past Sunday. Minnesota’s proud defense took a brief hiatus as well.

 

It’s clear what Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve stressed during Monday’s practice session. 

 

The Lynx held the Mystics to 49 fewer points than it allowed the explosive Sparks. 

 

It was the first time since Aug. 27, 2013, that the Lynx held a team under 50 points and the 10th time in team history the Lynx have done that. 

 

Minnesota took advantage of a Washington team missing lots of scoring firepower, including Aerial Powers, who missed her second straight game. 

 

“Defensively, we talked about the things we didn’t do in the L.A. game, we wanted to make sure we did tonight,” Minnesota head coach Cheryl Reeve said. “We had a good shootaround and cleaned up some areas. We knew Washington was going to try to put the ball inside and play that bigger line-up. We were going to try to be persistent not letting it get down there.”

 

NOTES: Both teams return to action on Thursday in games being televised by ESPN … The Mystics play Los Angeles on Thursday at 7 p.m. … The Lynx meet Las Vegas at 9 p.m. … This is the ninth time in the last 20 seasons, the Lynx have opened a season 6-2 or better.

 

Los Angeles and Las Vegas join Minnesota With Easy Victories

It was a lopsided Tuesday in the three WNBA games played.

 

Besides the Minnesota win over Washington that Rob gave you above, similar wipeouts had the Las Vegas Aces top the Indiana Fever, 98-79, while the Los Angeles Sparks smacked the New York Liberty 93-78.

 

In the win by the Aces, their fifth straight, Angel McCoughtry, the former Louisville star who came over as a free agent from the Atlanta Dream in the offseason, scored 20 points, shooting 9-for-10 from the field, while former Notre Dame star Jackie Young, had 17 points.

 

Despite the final score, it was a game over the first two quarters to be had by either team with Vegas holding a slim 60-59 lead at the half, in which McCoughtry had 14 of her points over the first 20 minutes.

 

Then the Aces (6-2) lowered the boom over the third quarter and earlier in the fourth to seal the win as A’ja Wilson, the former South Carolina star, finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while former Notre Dame star Kayla McBride had 15 points.

 

In all, six players from Vegas scored in double figures as Dearica Hamby added 13 points and Danielle Robinson Robinson scored 10. 

 

Former Temple star Candice Dupree scored 20 points for the Fever (3-5), and former South Carolina star Tiffany Mitchell scored 15, and Kelsey Mitchell scored 11.

 

In the nightcap, Los Angeles (5-3) got 17 points each from former Oregons State star Sydney Wiese and reserve Riquana Williams, while former Tennessee standout Candice Parker scored 16 points, 
Brittney Sykes scored 16, and Nneka Ogwumike out of Stanford scored 15.

 

New York (1-7), which won its first game of the season last week, got 24 points from Jazmine Jones, and Layshia Claredon scored 11. Amanda Zahui B had nine points and 10 rebounds, while former Connecticut star Kia Nurse also scored nine.

 

Looking Ahead

 

Wednesday’s triple header has the Connecticut Sun (2-6) leading off against the Dallas Wings (3-5) at 7 p.m., viewing available on CBSSN before the Chicago (3-5) Sky meets the Phoenix Mercury (3-5) at 9, while the nightcap featuring the first twitter cast of 10 of the season has the first-place Seattle Storm meeting the Atlanta Dream (2-6).

 

The halfway point arrives in the shortened 22-game per teams regular season schedule by the weekend, all played at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., near Tampa/St. Petersburg.

 

 While there is separation occurring at the top of the standings, the race for playoff spots for the complete eight-team field and seeding slots may go to the wire.

 

Although the best eight without regard to the conferences make the field with the top two teams  earning double byes to the semifinals, a best-of-five series as is the championship round, the fact that there hasn’t been a lot of intra-conference matchups will keep things close below as a bunch of likes, record wise, face each other.

 

Thus, the bottom teams are very much alive, though they won’t be much longer if they don’t start getting on a win streak soon.

 

Staying close to each other behind the frontrunners will maintain interest before a bunch of attention diverts to the collegiate world, likely at the end of the month, to see whither the state of men’s and women’s basketball this winter.

 

The big news of Tuesday away from the political world where Joseph R. Biden named Kamela Harris as his vice presidential running mate on the Democratic ticket saw the Big Ten put off football in the fall while the PAC-12 soon thereafter said all sports, including the winter ones, are done until at least after the first of the year.

 

The Guru contributed to this report.