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Minnesota Lynx escaped Indiana with a narrow win thanks to a bulldozing Lindsay Whalen drive at the end of regulation to score the game winning layup with 1.6 seconds remaining in regulation. Maya Moore led the Lynx with 15 points, Briann January had 16 for Fever. Katie Douglas finished with 14 points, though she went 0-6 behind the arc. Most of her made shots came from fastbreak layups. Rookie forward Deveraux Peters had one of her better games for the Lynx with 13 points and 6 rebounds. Her college coach from Notre Dame, Muffet McGraw, was in attendance which might have helped.
As it has been a recurring theme under Trudi Lacy, the Washington Mystics don’t know how to close out close games. They were tied at 65 apiece with the Atlanta Dream before they allowed the Dream to score 17 points in the final 3:28 of regulation. Angel McCoughtry returned to Dream starting lineup which unfortunately didn’t do much good to rookie Tiffany Hayes who had been playing well as a starter. Crystal Langhorne got in early foul trouble and sat out most of the remaining game – she’s been nursing an injury lately.
Seattle Storm rested Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird at San Antonio. That resulted in a convincing Silver Stars win although the Storm were able to keep up for more than a half of the game. While having Tanisha Wright back helped the Storm in turnover department, Seattle still had 20 turnovers to San Antonio’s 10. Turnovers and freethrow attempts were the only major differences between both teams in the boxscore.
Phoenix continues their tanking ways as they sat DeWanna Bonner against the Western conference’s worst Tulsa Shock. That means that Phoenix were without their top 5 players. Whether they were trying or not is irrelevant, but winning with 7 bench players against Tulsa they certainly weren’t going to. In a mostly close game Tulsa came up big at the end. Ivory Latta’s 20 points led 5 Tulsa players in double digits.
A 16-0 third quarter run propelled Sparks past Connecticut Sun in what up until then was a close contest. Candace Parker had her best game since returning from the Olympics with 23 points and 10 rebounds. With that loss Connecticut failed to gain a decisive advantage in the race for the first place in the East. They still have 3 games, 1 of those with Indiana, they can’t afford to lose to Indiana and any other of their next 2 opponents (Seattle, Atlanta) or they would have to face Atlanta Dream in the first round.
Minnesota Lynx – Indiana Fever 66-64
Lynx: Moore 15, Whalen 14, Peters 13
Fever: January 16, Douglas 14, Catchings 14, Larkins 10
Atlanta Dream – Washington Mystics 82-74
Dream: McCoughtry 26, Harding 19, De Souza 12, Lyttle 11
Mystics: Currie 20, Ajavon 15, Thomas 13
Seattle Storm – San Antonio Silver Stars 66-90
Storm: Wauters 12, Thompson 12, Abrosimova 11, Stricklen 10, Little 9
Silver Stars: Hammon 25, Young 19, Christon 13, Robinson 10, Johnson 9
Tulsa Shock – Phoenix Mercury 92-84
Shock: Latta 20, G.Johnson 18, Williams 16, Hodges 12, Holt 11, T.Johnson 9
Mercury: Kizer 19, Simon 16, Thomas 14, Hornbuckle 13, Gilbreath 10
Connecticut Sun – Los Angeles Sparks 82-93
Sun: Charles 21 (13 reb), Montgomery 15, White 11, Mims 9
Sparks: Parker 23 (10 reb), Toliver 18, Ogwumike 17, Beard 14, Milton-Jones 11
