Lynx-Silver Stars Preview

By NOEY KUPCHAN
Posted Sep 17 2011 3:39PM

The top-seeded Minnesota Lynx have never won a playoff series.

After narrowly defeating the San Antonio Silver Stars in Game 1, they're on the verge of snapping that eight-year drought.

Visiting Minnesota looks to advance to the Western Conference finals while San Antonio hopes to extend this best-of-three series Sunday.

On a night when their rookie teammate was honored, veterans Lindsay Whalen and Seimone Augustus led the Lynx (27-7) to a 66-65 victory over the Silver Stars in Friday's opener of this conference semifinal series.

Hours after receiving her WNBA rookie of the year award, Maya Moore was held to 10 points on 4-of-12 shooting while two of the team's oldest players keyed the win. Whalen and Augustus scored 20 and 19 points, respectively, and it was Augustus' 11-foot jumper with 53 seconds remaining that put Minnesota up for good.

"There's not many players in the league that can guard Seimone when she gets that look and bounce in her step whether she crosses you up or goes by you aggressively into the paint and shoots that runner, she's just special," WNBA coach of the year Cheryl Reeve told the Lynx's official website. "Really, really special."

Whalen, who deflected San Antonio's inbounds pass on the Lynx's end of the court with four seconds left to seal the victory, also earned high praise from Reeve.

"I told Lindsay that's the biggest deflection I've seen in my life," Reeve said. "Lindsay's just been important to us all season long and (Friday) was no different. She just poses problems in the pick-and-roll game and she had a great bounce in her step."

Close victories over San Antonio (18-16) are nothing new to Minnesota, which has taken seven straight in this series dating to 2010. Of its four regular season-wins this year, two were decided in the game's final seconds.

"At some point, the ball is going to bounce our way, being so close so many times," said Silver Stars six-time All-Star Becky Hammon, who scored 16 points on 4-of-13 shooting.

"But give them credit - they closed a little better than we did, and you move on to the next one. Yeah, we feel like it's a missed opportunity, but we still feel like there's some good basketball left to be played."

Reeve, meanwhile, knows her team still has plenty of work to do if it wants to close out this series.

"(The Silver Stars) really had us back on our heels," Reeve said. "We have to watch video and adjust a little bit, but the important thing is Game 1 goes to the Lynx."

Though San Antonio is surely looking forward to getting back to the AT&T Center, it went just 9-8 there for the third-worst home record in the WNBA. Minnesota recorded the league's best road record at 13-4, posting four more road wins than any other team.

Danielle Adams, who finished second behind Moore for rookie of the year with two votes, scored 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting in 24 minutes off the bench for the Silver Stars.

Perkins, Young help Silver Stars even series

Posted Sep 18 2011 8:40PM

SAN ANTONIO (AP) The San Antonio Silver Stars finally figured out the Minnesota Lynx, and just in the nick of time.

Jia Perkins scored 24 points and Sophia Young had 23 as the Silver Stars beat the Lynx 84-75 Sunday to even the Western Conference semifinals series.

Becky Hammon added 18 for the Silver Stars, who had lost seven straight games to Minnesota and are trying to get past the first round for the first time since reaching the WNBA finals in 2008.

``It feels great,'' Young said of ending their skid against the Lynx. ``Obviously, Minnesota is a good team. To finally come in and get a win, it's amazing. I thought our team played tremendous.''

Seimone Augustus scored 24 points and Maya Moore had 16 for Minnesota, which had the league's best regular-season record but has never won a playoff series. Lindsay Whalen added 15 points for the Lynx, and Rebekkah Brunson had a game-high 16 rebounds.

Moore was in foul trouble throughout the game and fouled out with 4.9 seconds left.

The deciding Game 3 will be Tuesday night at Minneapolis.

The Silver Stars used a 17-2 run in the third quarter to take control of the game. They held Minnesota to 30 of 76 shooting and forced 17 turnovers.

``We knew Minnesota plays at their best in the third quarter,'' Young said. ``Our mindset coming out of the half was to just be as aggressive as possible, get our hands on the loose balls, rebound the ball, push it, get some transition buckets, and I think we did a great job of that.''

Young scored 17 points in the second half for San Antonio.

The Silver Stars shot 8 of 16 in the third quarter and led 64-50 heading into the fourth. Young had nine points in the quarter, hitting 5 of 7 free throws. Her layup with 4:44 left capped a 17-2 run and gave the Silver Stars a 57-41 lead.

``San Antonio succeeded in putting the pressure back on us,'' Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. ``We fought all season to have home-court advantage. Win the home games, and you're the WNBA champion.''

Perkins had eight points in the third quarter, including two 3-pointers.

``I think just getting in a rhythm before the game, getting some shots up, really helped me,'' Perkins said. ``I knew in the game, I was going to have some open looks. I knew last game I had open looks, but I wasn't able to hit them down. Coming in, I had my mindset right, and I just wanted to knock them down for the team.''

The Silver Stars led 40-37 at halftime behind 14 points from Perkins and 12 from Hammon. Augustus led Minnesota with 12 points and Whalen had 11.

The Silver Stars went on an 11-0 run in the second quarter to take their biggest lead, 31-20. Hammon highlighted the spurt by coming up behind Moore, who wasn't paying attention, stealing the ball and hitting a streaking Perkins for a layup with 6:18 remaining. On the next possession, Hammon hit a 3.

Whalen led Minnesota back, scoring all 11 of her first-half points over the final 4:54 of the quarter. Her 3 as the shot clock expired brought Minnesota to 40-36 and Monica Wright's free throw shortly before halftime made it 40-37.

The Silver Stars led 18-14 after the first quarter. Moore went to the bench with 5:46 left in the quarter with her second foul and never returned. Augustus, though, had seven points in the quarter to keep Minnesota close.

Before the game, Silver Stars center Ruth Riley, along with Seattle's Sue Bird, was named co-winner of the league's sportsmanship award.

• Lynx: --
• Silver Stars: --

• Lynx: --
• Silver Stars: --

• Lead Changes: 0
• Times Tied: 4

• Arena: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX
• Officials: #9 Denise Brooks, #13 Cameron Inouye, #38 Lamont Simpson
• Attendance: 7023
• Duration: 2:05