After a surprisingly strong start sparked by a trio of rookies, the young Minnesota Lynx have begun to encounter adversity.
The Lynx will look to avoid a third straight loss when they visit New York on Saturday, looking to end a five-game losing streak against the Liberty.
Coming of consecutive 10-24 seasons, Minnesota won its first five games of 2008, including three on the road and one against defending WNBA champion Phoenix.
Since then, however, the Lynx (6-3) have dropped three of four, including their last two games - both at home. They lost 82-78 to Sacramento on Thursday after being outscored 43-18 over the final 15 minutes of the first half.
"This is a work in progress with this young team," Minnesota coach Don Zierden said. "They came out and got a couple wins early and people got excited. That's great. But as a coaching staff we understand our weaknesses."
On Thursday, one of their problems was taking care of the ball. The Lynx had a season-high 21 turnovers against Sacramento, including 13 in their dismal first half.
Their rookie trio of Candice Wiggins, Nicky Anosike and Charde Houston - averaging a combined 35.2 points - totaled just 23 points on 6-of-19 shooting. All three are among the team's top four in scoring and top five in minutes.
Anosike, a New York City native and the only starter in the group, has scored just 20 points on 6-of-25 shooting in her last four games. She is, however, averaging 9.4 rebounds in her last five games.
"This is a young team and we are going to go through growing pains," said leading scorer Seimone Augustus, who had 21 points Thursday. "We are taking everything as a learning experience so we can get better after every game that we play."
While the Lynx have struggled, the Liberty (4-4) have turned around their slow start by winning three of their last four. They won 81-77 at Atlanta on Wednesday, erasing a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit against the winless Dream.
"We showed a lot of character in the second half being down 12 points," New York coach Pat Coyle said. "We could've easily folded and we didn't."
Center Janel McCarville had a season-high 25 points on 11-of-14 shooting and added seven assists for New York, which hasn't lost to Minnesota since a 64-60 defeat at Madison Square Garden in July 2005. Augustus had 32 points in Manhattan on July 30, 2006, but the Liberty won that game 78-69.
The visiting team has won 11 of the 15 games in the all-time series, which the Liberty lead 10-5.