Lynx Notes

• With 23 points, 20 rebounds and five steals, Sylvia Fowles became the first player in WNBA history to record 20+ points, 20+ rebounds and 5+ steals. She also became the first player in Lynx history (regular season) to record a 20+ point, 20+ rebound game (third career), marking just the 18th time in WNBA history achieving that feat. Tonight marked the 129th double-double of her career and second-consecutive of the season.
• Tonight marked Lindsay Whalen’s 450th career game. Whalen led Minnesota in assists for the second consecutive game, shoveling out eight assists. She entered the night leading the league in the category and is now averaging 8.5 assists per game.
• Rebekkah Brunson brought down 13 rebounds, surpassing the 2,000 career rebounds mark as a Lynx in the first quarter (2,011). She tallied seven points and needs just 10 more points to amass 4,000 WNBA career points.
• Maya Moore tallied her second double-digit effort of the season with 12 points and added seven rebounds and one steal.
• Seimone Augustus added 11 points for the Lynx and two rebounds. She needs just one more offensive rebound to become eighth all-time in Lynx history (Katie Smith, 203).
• Led by Fowles’ 20 boards, the Lynx outrebounded the Wings 50-33 tonight. Over the last two contests, Minnesota has outrebounded their opponent 91-58.
• With the win tonight, Minnesota has now beaten Dallas in nine straight games, including four straight at home.
• The Lynx travel to play the New York Liberty on Friday, May 26. Tip is set for 6:30 p.m. CT. The game can be heard on BOB 106 FM and can be seen on WNBA League Pass.

Wings Notes

• Liz Cambage recorded her first double-double of the season with 14 point and 12 rebounds. Cambage’s four assists also ties a career high.
• Kayla Thornton raked in 11 points and nine rebounds for her second start of the season.
• Off the bench, Azurá Stevens led the way recording nine points and three rebounds. The nine points is a new career high for the rookie.
• Skylar Diggins-Smith dished out a team-high of seven assists, the second most recorded this season. She added 12 points

Game Leaders

Lynx Coach Cheryl Reeve

On expecting this start to the game…

“I knew they would respond to it, the Sunday game, it’s one game of 34. They were pretty disappointed, we felt like there were some things that we could have controlled that we really didn’t. This team through the years typically responds to that type of situation. Our practice yesterday was okay, but our shoot around today was terrific. So I knew that they were ready to play.”

On the first 20/20 game in team history by Sylvia Fowles…

“We can’t forget about Game 5 (2017), that is regular season so it was the second time in Lynx history, just 18 times in league history. It was important. One of the reporters said to me that we would have a hard time scoring inside tonight, and Sylvia might have heard that and took it to heart, and she went to work. She got deep position, something that Sylvia does really, really well. This is something we asked her to do, this looked more like Sylvia from last season, the multiple fakes, the footwork, the deep pins. The second half not as productive, but those two wore each other out. That was hard work what they were doing. They are each a handful for one another, they were drained. Our second half was not as good.”

On the team relaxing when they took a 27-point lead…

“That’s the hard part. I didn’t love the energy when we came out of the locker room. You know you can see the look in the eye, I thought we were flat right away. We were fortunate that we didn’t give up a lot of early baskets. We held the fort down, it was a spiral from there. I would need to see the video to understand but we looked flat. We didn’t play with the same sense of urgency. We were much easier to guard. What I saw was a pretty flat low energy group to start the third.”

Lynx Center Sylvia Fowles

On getting 20+ points and 20+ rebounds…

“Goodness gracious that was hard, but it felt good. I felt good. I felt like my teammates got me the ball a lot. They put me in really good spots to finish and from there I went.

On confidence in the paint…

“It definitely felt different, but after we watched the game on Sunday I think I was more rushing than anything. I wasn’t being composed and being my normal self, I was letting them pretty much beat me up and that’s something that we harped on the last couple of days of practice just making sure I’m in my comfort zone and taking my time.”

Lynx Forward Maya Moore

On tonight’s game…

“I thought, especially in the first half we limited our turnovers and, you know, Dallas is a team that likes to get their hands on a lot of balls, so we knew we had to be focused. So just go out and get so many more tips overall, at least at the first half. Third quarter we had a few more issues offensively but overall just a much-improved effort.”

On defense…

“No question we love to play off of our defense with the basket down the passing lanes or, you know, securing a tough rebound and just going on with the play and that was key. And I think we all feel that and we’re doing that and we’re connected and we’re playing team defense according to our identity and just kind of making shots hard outside of the paint and going off to the races.”

Wings Head Coach Fred Williams

On thoughts on the game…

“Well to start the statement I thought we dug ourselves in a hole tonight. In the first half, especially the first quarter and a little bit of the second quarter for sure. We just couldn’t get anything to fall. Defensively I felt that they got more physical with us on the defensive end and for us that took a little bit off of our rhythm. I was looking for a combination of players who could make that rhythm in the second half and I thought there was a certain combination of players in that third quarter that fought back and got us going and kind of gave it a run.”

On Liz Cambage’s performance…

“I thought for a first time out on the road in a Minnesota environment her and Syl [Sylvia Fowles], I know they’ve seen each other many times maybe overseas playing in the past and their past years here in the league, but I thought it was just a really good battle between both of them. Liz had some good points, some good moves and blocks and Sylvia had the same. This league is kind of turning into a center league you know with the post players and it used to be for all the guards. It was a unique battle to see. I think Liz learned a lot from this game and we’ll just be prepared for the next game.”

Wings Center Liz Cambage

On playing against Sylvia Fowles…

“Yeah it was tough, I mean there’s a reason she’s MVP. She just gets better every year, and you know she’s so smart the way she seals me and uses her body. It was a big learning lesson for me tonight. I got to come out next time ready to play.”

On Sylvia Fowles having the edge on her…

“I’m not sure what it was, we just didn’t come out ready to play. Championship team, their home court, they had just lost on the buzzer to LA, we knew they would be hungry, and we had to come out hungry, and we didn’t. We had a bad start against Phoenix, we had a bad start against Atlanta, and another bad start tonight. I don’t know what it is, if we play a whole game we will win it, instead of just coming out at half time. We have to be ready from the start.”

Wings Forward Karima Christmas-Kelly

On her mindset coming into tonight’s game…

“Just to play them tough, you know, they’re going to come out aggressive at all times and I think we tried to start off that way. In the first half it didn’t go the way we wanted but I’m proud of the second half and the progress that we made throughout the rest of the game.”

On closing the gap in the second half…

“I think just playing better defense. We gave them a lot of second-chance points in the first half and they took advantage of that and our shot selection. I think in the second half we kind of focused more on offense and defense and just getting those key stops and key points.”