Talk about a turnaround.
The Lynx gave up season-highs for points in a quarter and a half while being out a lot of things in the first half Sunday night.
“It was not a pretty halftime,” said coach Cheryl Reeve.
Her coach’s frustration was “really, really valid,” said Napheesa Collier.
By stepping it up on defense, the Lynx remain perfect on the season by pulling away for a 86-75 win at Golden State. At 7-0, this is Minnesota’s best start since a 9-0 kickoff to the 2017 championship season.
After allowing 52 first-half points, Minnesota held Golden State to eight in the third quarter, the fewest in a frame by a Lynx opponent this season. The Valkyries only added 15 in the fourth.
“We know what to do and that we’re not going out to do it is extremely frustrating. … We need to go out and take responsibility for that. I think that third quarter was us showing that we know what to do, we just need to do that for four quarters,” Collier said.
Four Lynx players scored in double figures, led by a 22-point, 11-rebound, 4-assist, 2-steal performance from Collier in almost 37 minutes of action. She missed Friday’s win over Phoenix with right knee soreness.
Courtney Williams had 20 points, Kayla McBride 16 and Bridget Carleton 12 for Minnesota.
Williams, who also had five rebounds, five assists and two steals, has reached the 20-point mark in two of her last three outings.
“Her pick-and-roll game is so good, shooting the basketball, making life easy for others, getting Phee easy baskets or (Alanna Smith) when she’s rolling, finding shooters. She just has this unique confidence in herself that never wavers,” Reeve said. “… Her will to win is very high. Her play is contagious.”
Williams had three threes and Carleton, Collier and McBride two apiece as Minnesota made a season-high 11 3-point shots.
But about that defense.
“It was just a matter of us locking in,” Williams said. “We know how we need to bring it every night and sometimes we take that for granted and we have to stop doing that. If we want accomplish the goal that we have for ourselves we can’t be a second half team.”
Golden State scored 29 second-quarter points for a 52-51 lead at intermission then went 8 for 30 in the second half, including 3 for 17 from deep, and turned the ball over nine times.
“We had a greater passion for what we were doing than what we demonstrated in the first half. As a result, I thought we were in their space a bit more. A lot of stuff they were getting in the first half came pretty easy for them. Their aggression was greater than ours, their pace was greater than ours,” Reeve said.
Up by one, Carleton hit a triple, McBride scored on a drive and Natisha Hiedeman added a trey for a 67-58 lead.
The Valkyries (2-4) went more than five minutes without a point during a third quarter in which they were 3 of 15 from the field and missed all nine 3-point attempts after shooting 45.7% from the field in the first two quarters.
Back-to-back 3-pointers from Collier and Williams made it 83-61 midway through the fourth quarter, the end of a 24-3 Lynx run.
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