The Connecticut Sun swept the Minnesota Lynx in two games during the regular season.
With what was at stake in Minnesota on Sunday, they beat them again in a 73-70 thriller to take a 1-0 series lead in the WNBA semifinals. Alyssa Thomas came up one rebound shy of a triple-double as Connecticut’s defense rattled the league’s best three-point shooting team in the regular season.
After a back-and-forth first few minutes, the Sun finished the first quarter on a 9-2 run to take a 21-14 lead into the second. The Lynx closed the gap to 42-28 at halftime and took a 24-15 lead in the third quarter to a 62-57 lead heading into the final quarter of the game. By then, the match had already produced seven ties and 10 lead changes.
And the Sun was not over. They held the Lynx scoreless for the first 4:21 of the fourth quarter and retook the lead at 65-64. From there, play resumed as a tense battle with multiple lead changes before the Sun took the lead for good at 69-68. Connecticut’s defense continued to strangle the Minnesota offense down the stretch while holding the Lynx to eight points in the fourth quarter.
The game ended appropriately when Napheesa Collier missed a game-tying 3-point attempt while DeWanna Bonner stood here on the left wing.
