The Minnesota Lynx fell into the highest seed within the WNBA playoffs on Tuesday evening regardless of an “embarrassing” loss and their star rookie coping with a calf harm at maybe the worst potential time.
The Lynx fell to the Indiana Fever 96-77 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Tuesday, which was a sport that will have secured the No. 1 seed within the playoffs had they received. However because of the Portland Hearth’s 90-82 extra time win over the Golden State Valkyries on the Moda Middle late on Tuesday evening, the Lynx ended up securing the highest seed anyhow.
That allowed the Lynx to go into Thursday’s regular-season finale with out having to fret about playoff seeding. The larger concern, although, could also be what occurs with Olivia Miles.
Miles was a late scratch in Tuesday’s contest resulting from a left calf harm. She had been listed as questionable earlier than the sport, and advised ESPN that she sat out merely as a precaution.
The Lynx couldn’t get something going within the first half in Indianapolis and ended up falling into their largest deficit of the season. Earlier than Tuesday evening, they hadn’t trailed anybody by greater than 20 factors all yr. However the Fever took a 29-point lead briefly earlier than carrying a 23-point benefit into the locker room at halftime.
The Lynx lastly responded, and opened the second half on a half 11-0 run to chop the sport to 12 factors earlier than Sophie Cunningham hit a nook 3 to interrupt the Fever’s dry spell. However in whole, the Lynx ended up outscoring the Fever 30-14 within the third quarter to get inside simply seven factors.
However their comeback ended up falling quick. The Fever held Minnesota to only 13 factors within the fourth quarter, because the Lynx rested their starters for a lot of the second half, to safe the 19-point win. Caitlin Clark led the way in which with 27 factors, 9 assists and 7 rebounds.
“It’s embarrassing,” Napheesa Collier mentioned, >. “We needs to be disillusioned and embarrassed concerning the product that we placed on the ground tonight. Not happy with what we did.”
The Lynx, now at 32-11 on the yr, will run it again in opposition to the Fever on Thursday to shut out the common season. However it’s unclear if Miles will be capable of play. Miles mentioned that she was going to try to take part in observe on Wednesday earlier than figuring out her standing for the common season finale.
Miles has been the clear frontrunner for Rookie of the Yr all season. She has averaged 19.8 factors per sport this yr, and he or she dropped 21 factors within the crew's 101-89 win over the Connecticut Solar on Sunday. That introduced her to 790 factors on the season and>. Clark broke Corridor of Famer Seimone Augustus' document when she dropped 769 factors throughout her rookie marketing campaign in 2024.
Regardless, the Lynx are nonetheless in a chief place getting into the playoffs. They’ve been to the postseason in all however two of their seasons below longtime head coach Cheryl Reeve, who took over in 2010, and have received 4 titles below her watch. The newest one got here in 2017, although they reached the WNBA Finals in 2024.
However any deep playoff run they hope to go on this fall goes to be far more troublesome to drag off if Miles is sidelined for any vital period of time. Tuesday evening’s outing in Indiana made that very clear.