Need another example of how good the Minnesota Lynx have been this season?
Playing their 35th game of the WNBA season, the Lynx couldn’t quite get a needed basket in the final seconds and lost 75-73 Thursday in Atlanta.
It’s the first time the league’s top team has lost back-to-back games this season. The Lynx lost 85-75 at New York Tuesday.
Bridget Carleton found her offensive rhythm with a season-high 16 points, including four triples, and Jessica Shepard continues to make the most of her starting opportunity with 15 points and a season-best 16 rebounds. Kayla McBride had 15 points.
A close game was expected between the top two teams in the league standings. The Lynx (28-7) won 96-92 in overtime at Atlanta June 27, and the Dream (23-13) won 90-86 one month later at Target Center, Minnesota’s lone regular-season home loss.
Carleton, who scored the first eight Lynx points, tied a season-high with five makes on a season-high 13 attempts. In her past four games combined, Carleton was 3 for 11 from the field, including 1 of 8 on 3-pointers, for eight points.
“We set the tone with her. The matchup starting the game, we knew who would be guarding her, so we got aggressive and got her off with the mindset of being aggressive. We just talked to BC about how much the group needs her, especially without Phee and she rose to the occasion for us today,” coach Cheryl Reeve said.
Forward Napheesa Collier was upgraded to questionable on the team’s initial injury report but still missed her sixth straight game with a sprained right ankle. That again put Shepard in the Starting 5.
Trailing by five with 1:31 to play, the Lynx forced the Dream into a desperation shot as the shot clock was about to expire and Alanna Smith hit a triple at the other end with 48.9 seconds left.
After a Lynx challenge resulted in an Atlanta backcourt violation, Smith nearly tied the game with 28.2 seconds left, but her shot from close did not go down. Two Dream free throws push the lead back to four, but Carleton’s inbounds pass went to Shepard in the lane for a bucket to get the Lynx back within two.
Another backcourt violation by the Dream gave Minnesota the ball with 12.6 seconds left. Carleton inbounded to Smith who got it to Courtney Williams for a drive. However, the ball slipped out of her hands near the basket with 1.7 seconds left.
“We did a great job on defense giving ourselves a chance to win the game,” Shepard said. “The things we did earlier in the game made us come up short. … But we gave ourselves a chance.”
A 13-2 run to end the third quarter had Minnesota up 60-54, but Atlanta scored 14 of the first 16 points in the final quarter for a 68-62 lead with 4:50 to play.
Minnesota trailed by two at the break despite outshooting the Dream 51.6% to 39.8% in the opening 20 minutes and having a 21-13 rebounding advantage, led by Shepard’s 10. The difference is Minnesota turned the ball over 13 of its 18 times which Atlanta turned into 18 points.
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