Lynx-Mercury Preview

By KATE HEDLIN
Posted Jun 14 2012 2:51PM

Despite being without their leading scorer for a second straight game, the Minnesota Lynx have tied the WNBA record for wins to open a season.

They'll look to break the mark Friday night when they visit a Phoenix Mercury team likely to be missing Diana Taurasi again.

Minnesota (9-0) is off to an impressive start in defense of its league title. With a 93-73 win over Tulsa on Saturday, it matched the 2001 and 2003 Los Angeles Sparks for most victories to start the season.

While beating a winless Shock team proved not to be difficult, the Lynx did so without Seimone Augustus, who was sidelined a second straight game with a right quad strain.

Augustus leads Minnesota with 18.1 points per game. Maya Moore stepped up in her absence Saturday with a season-high 26 points, going 5 of 8 from 3-point range and scoring 14 points in the third quarter.

"This was a fun game for Maya, she was poised and yet she was aggressive," coach Cheryl Reeve said. "She took some tough shots, missed some easy ones, made some tough ones. All-in-all, she hit some timely shots for us in the third quarter when we really needed her."

Augustus practiced earlier this week but her status for Friday is uncertain. She led Minnesota with 19 points in a 105-83 win over Phoenix in the teams' season opener May 20.

"She's a big part of our team, and just her presence here is great," Moore told the Lynx's official website. "We're excited for her to get healthy and get back on the court even more."

Unlike the Lynx, the Mercury don't appear to have the depth to overcome key injuries.

Taurasi, who missed the loss to Minnesota with a strained left hip flexor, remains out indefinitely. The defending scoring champion and 2009 MVP has played in two games this season and hasn't been on the court since May 26.

The Mercury (2-5) have struggled without her, with both of their victories coming against Tulsa. They fell 90-74 at Los Angeles last Friday after shooting 38.2 percent.

Charde Houston scored 22 points and DeWanna Bonner added 18 and six rebounds, but Phoenix suffered its fifth loss by double digits this season.

The Mercury, also without Penny Taylor due to a season-ending ACL injury, are giving up a league-worst 88.4 points per game while scoring 77.7 - the worst differential in the WNBA.

"It's like driving a car with two wheels," coach Corey Gaines said. "Does that make sense? It's kind of hard. I don't know what you can do."

The Mercury are off to their worst start since 2008, when they also opened 2-5. That team finished 16-18 and didn't make the playoffs.

Phoenix has lost four straight to Minnesota, including a two-game sweep in the Western Conference finals last year.

Whalen scores 29 as unbeaten Lynx beat Mercury

Posted Jun 16 2012 1:53AM

PHOENIX (AP) Lindsay Whalen scored a season-high 29 points and the Minnesota Lynx remained perfect with a 78-60 victory over the Phoenix Mercury on Friday night.

Seimone Augustus had 14 points and Monica Wright added 11 for the Lynx (10-0), who set the record for the longest unbeaten start in league history.

``We're excited about that,'' Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said. ``We're not a team that talks about records, but when it got to be nine we thought, `What the hell? Let's embrace this thing and take our place in history.' We're happy to be the only team to start off 10-0.''

Whalen shot 11 for 14 from the floor and went 6 for 7 from the free-throw line.

Minnesota got its club-record 10th straight road win and 13th consecutive regular-season victory dating to last year.

DeWanna Bonner scored 18 points and Candice Dupree added 11 for the Mercury (2-6), who have lost five of six games without All-Star guard Diana Taurasi - out indefinitely with a strained left hip flexor.

``Whalen had a great game, a lot of open shots, putbacks, running the break, free throws,'' Phoenix coach Corey Gaines said. ``I think the defense was pretty good. We held the team to 38 percent, and as a team they're shooting in the high 50s. And I think they lead the league in scoring, and we held them under their average. ... We got outrebounded by one, but we just couldn't score.''

Phoenix had its lowest scoring total since a 77-55 loss to San Antonio on Aug. 28, 2008, the team's first game after a monthlong hiatus for the Beijing Olympics.

Augustus returned after missing the previous two games with a strained right quad.

``It feels good,'' she said. ``It's still giving me a little bit of trouble, but the more I play on it, the faster I'll be able to get back into the flow of my game. ... With (the Mercury) being so long on the inside, they were able to slow us down a little bit in the paint playing that zone, but overall I felt I was able to do what I needed to do.''

Whalen needed less than two minutes to score six points as the Lynx raced to an 11-4 lead.

The Mercury pulled within two at 14-12 on a 3-pointer by Alexis Gray-Lawson with 2:39 left in the first.

But Whalen scored another seven points as Minnesota outscored 16-5 over the next nearly 10 minutes to open a 30-17 lead and the Lynx never looked back.

Augustus' 3-pointer with about 5 minutes remaining gave Minnesota a 74-51 lead, its largest of the game, and Phoenix got no closer than 18 again.

• Lynx: --
• Mercury: --

• Lynx: --
• Mercury: --

• Lead Changes: 0
• Times Tied: 1

• Arena: US Airways Center, Phoenix, AZ
• Officials: #42 Roy Gulbeyan, #8 Daryl Humphrey, #13 Cameron Inouye
• Attendance: 7394
• Duration: 1:53