Seattle Storm 85 (21-7), Minnesota Lynx 75 (15-12),

Friday, August 3, 2018

Lynx Notes

• The Lynx came out of the gates firing on all cylinders in the first quarter, building a 22-16 lead after one. Lindsay Whalen had six points after one and Sylvia Fowles grabbed six rebounds. After leading at the halftime break 38-37, Minnesota was outscored by Seatle in the second half 48-37. The Lynx had the deficit cut to six with 6:13 left in the third, but the Storm would end up pushing their lead to a game-high 14 points with 1:25 left.
• Sylvia Fowles led the way for Minnesota tonight, tallying a game-high-tying 20 points on 5-of-9 shooting and a game-high 16 rebounds. Tonight marked Fowles’ league-leading 16th double-double season (143rd career) and ninth 20+ point/10+ rebound performance of the season (61st career).
• Lindsay Whalen finished with 12 points on 5-of-12 shooting, including 2-of-4 from deep and grabbed a season-high eight rebounds. The eight rebounds are the most for Whalen since securing 10 at Washington on August 16, 2015. She also dished out two assists.
• Rebekkah Brunson added 12 points in 28:30 of action and dished out a team-high five assists.
• Behind Fowles’ 16 rebounds, Minnesota outrebounded Seattle 41-30, marking the team’s league-best 11th double-digit rebounding advantage of the season.
• The 22 Seattle fast break points were a season-high given up by the Lynx. Previously, Chicago was credited with 20 fast break points on July 7.
• With tonight’s loss, the season-series is tied up at 1 game apiece with the season finale of the series coming on Sunday, August 12 at Target Center.
• Minnesota returns home on Sunday to face the Atlanta Dream in the season-series finale. Tip is set for 6:00 p.m. CT. The game can be heard on BOB 106 FM and can be seen on Fox Sports North.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS

• With tonight’s win, Seattle’s improved its league-leading record to 21-7 and clinched its 14^th playoff appearance in its 19-year history.
• Tonight’s attendance of 12,064 was the highest for the Storm all season and marked the third-straight sellout for the franchise.
• Guard Sue Bird registered her fifth double-double of the season and 28^th of her career with 14 points and 11 assists, tying a season-high effort for dimes, which she has now achieved five times.
• WNBA MVP candidate Breanna Stewart, who entered tonight’s game second in the WNBA in scoring at 22.6 PPG, finished with 20 points, her 20^th 20-plus point performance of the 2018 campaign. She needs only two more 20-point games to break her own single-season record of 21 (2017).
• Seattle held the WNBA’s all-time leading rebounder, Rebekkah Brunson, to zero rebounds, and Maya Moore, the Lynx’s top scorer who came into tonight averaging over 18 points per game, to just seven on 2-for-9 shooting.

KEY STATS OF THE GAME

• Trailing 48-39 midway through the third quarter, Breanna Stewart mustered her own 6-0 run to spark a 22-9 run to cap the third frame to give the Storm a 61-57 lead entering the fourth quarter. Seattle then opened the fourth with a 5-0 burst thanks to Jewell Loyd to stretch its lead to nine (66-59), and the Lynx never got closer than six for the remainder of the game.
• The Storm outscored the Lynx from deep, 36-15, getting outside contributions from seven different players, led by Sue Bird who tied a season-high with four three-pointers.
• In the first 23:04 of the contest, the Storm had just two fast break points and in the next 7:55 scored 20 on the run, finishing with 22 for the game and turning a seven-point (44-37) deficit into a nine-point lead (66-57).

STORM HIGHLIGHTS

• Guard Sue Bird recorded 11 assists, matching her season-high for the fifth time this season. She now has 192 assists on the season, needing 29 to match her career-best (221) for a single-season and 44 to match the all-time record (236) held by Ticha Penicheiro.
• Natasha Howard faced her former team and finished with 15 points on 7-for-16 shooting to go along with six rebounds and a career-high five steals.
• Natasha Howard’s five steals matches a season-high for any Storm player this season (Alysha Clark at Los Angeles on 6/7; Jordin Canada at Dallas on 6/2).
• Jewell Loyd scored 11 second-half points en route to finishing with 14 on 5-for-10 shooting to go along with five rebounds and four assists. She dished out her 400th career assist with 2:38 left to play in the fourth quarter.
• Storm forward Alysha Clark connected on her 500^th-career field goal via a layup in the second quarter with 2:34 left to go. She finished with seven points and three assists.
• Rookie guard Jordin Canada came off the bench to tally six points, including her eighth three-pointer of the season.
• Sue Bird collected her seventh double-digit assist performance of the 2018 season.
• Seattle improved to 19-3 with the starting lineup of Sue Bird, Jewell Loyd, Breanna Stewart, Alysha Clark and Natasha Howard.
• Seattle has hit 10 or more three’s 11 times this season, including seven games with 12 or more triples.
• Seattle’s current season average for shooting percentage stands at 47.1 percent, which currently ranks second all-time in franchise history (47.3 percent in 2017).
• The Storm improved to 22-12 all-time against Minnesota at KeyArena and won its second in a row against the Lynx in the Emerald City.
• The Storm’s 21 wins are the third-most in franchise history (28 in 2010; 22 in 2008).
• With tonight’s win, Seattle evened season series with Minnesota at one game apiece. The teams will meet one more time on Aug. 12 in Minneapolis.

LYNX HIGHLIGHTS

• Sylvia Fowles led the Lynx with 20 points and 16 rebounds on 8-for-11 shooting, her 18^th 20-plus point game and her 22^nd double-digit rebounding game.
• Tonight marked Sylvia Fowles’ league-leading 16th double-double season (143rd career) and ninth 20-plus point/10-plus rebound performance of the season (61st career).
• Guard Lindsay Whalen posted 12 points and a season-high eight rebounds, all of which came on the defensive end.
• Lindsay Whalen’s eight rebounds are the most for Whalen since securing 10 at Washington on Aug. 16, 2015. She also dished out two assists.
• Rebekkah Brunson finished with 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting, as well as five assists, one shy of her season-high of six.
• With 6:09 left in the third quarter, Minnesota notched its largest lead (48-39) of the game after a layup b Maya Moore, which would ultimately be her final points of the contest.
• Minnesota owned the glass, 41-30, marking the team’s league-best 11th double-digit rebounding advantage of the season.
• The Lynx shot 46.3 percent (31-for-67) from the field and 8-for-9 from the stripe.

STORM QUOTES

STORM HEAD COACH DAN HUGHES …………………………………………………………
(On the game overall) “Obviously, the game had stages, I thought Minnesota got out really well in the first quarter. I thought we kind of learned something throughout the game and we kind of put it to use. They are such a good basketball team with such character about them. But I thought we understood what we had to do against a team with those kinds of capabilities and excellence about how they play. And then I thought it just kind of grew in the second third and fourth quarter.”

STORM FORWARD BREANNA STEWART ………………………………………………………
(On if this was a statement game) “I don’t think it was as much a statement game, but just the fact that you said they are defending champs, they are trying to kind of get momentum going into the playoffs and we are coming back from a long road trip, and we wanted to play in front of our fans.”

(On the MVP chants) “Honestly, I try not to notice it, but the arena was really loud. You know, it’s something that’s really cool, but I focus on the game.”

STORM GUARD JEWELL LOYD …………………………………………………………………….
(On the playoff clinch) “It’s a good feeling for sure. For us, we just want to get better every game, we still want to focus on our next opponents, but it’s definitely something we wanted to achieve in the beginning of the season, and we are glad we did it.”

(On Stewart’s season) “You can obviously look at all the stats and what she’s been doing, but I think it’s just more that. What she does off the court with clearly what she does on the court is just remarkable. It’s every night. It’s consistent. It’s fun to watch and to see her just dominate like that.”

STORM GUARD SUE BIRD …………………………………………………………………………..
(On coming back off a road trip to the Seattle crowd) “It was everything to be honest. The way this schedule has panned out, we’ve been gone a lot, plus All-Star weekend as you mentioned. So, to come back home, to be here for a couple days and to have the fans bring the energy to us, like I said, it was necessary, I think it got us through.”

(On how things shifted in the first quarter) “I think it was our defense. They come out to start the third and it was like ‘score, score, score,’ and for us it’s like ‘miss, miss, miss,’ and they definitely had momentum. But then there was a timeout, we talked about it and we knew if we can get some stops and run, that was going to be extremely advantageous to us.”

LYNX QUOTES

LYNX HEAD COACH CHERYL REEVE ………………………………………………………….
(On the game) “I thought we played hard enough. People talk about the back to back, but I thought we handled that well. We just hit that stretch (in the third quarter) where they turned us over, got out and ran in transition and that turned the game for them. Give them credit for turning up the pressure. Our inability to handle it on consecutive possessions got the crowd going. It was a great crowd here tonight. Obviously Seattle is a good team. I thought we had them right where we wanted them … then they shot close to 60 percent in the second half. That was layups off of our bad offense. They ended up making 12 threes, but if we don’t turn it over and give up 40 points in the paint, we could actually survive 12 threes.”
(On what’s next) “Everybody’s got a tight race. Everybody’s got their challenges. What do we have to do? We’ve got to go home and, by whatever means necessary, win our next game. That’s what we’ve got to do.”

LYNX CENTER SYLVIA FOWLES ……………………………………………………………………
(On the game) “I think our turnovers were our downfall, but Seattle is home and they’re on a good run. We knew it was going to be tough coming in here to play. Once we get our defense on lock, everything will pretty much fall into place for us, but when our defense is not on point, it’s hard for us to score on offense.”
(On what the difference was in the second half) “Turnovers. I think we had turnovers like every other possession and they capitalized on that. We know Seattle is good at getting out into transition and running. We can’t let those things happen, especially when you’re on the road.”
(On the playoff-like atmosphere) “Yeah, the fans showed out and they were really good, but that’s always the case here in Seattle. They brought their team to victory and that’s something you have to respect when you’re on the road.”

NEXT GAME: Seattle hits the road for a critical four-game stretch, starting with a back-to-back on Monday at New York (8 a.m. PT), followed by at Indiana on Tuesday (4 p.m. PT).