Not only are the Minnesota Lynx winning consistently at home, their margins of victory are increasing.
Coming off a pair of blowout home wins, the Lynx attempt to improve to 15-0 in league home games Sunday night when they host the Atlanta Dream.
Minnesota (22-4) has won four straight since a six-point road loss to the Chicago Sky on July 12. After opening a five-game homestand with a 79-66 win over the Phoenix Mercury on July 16, the Lynx followed up their 23-point win over Sky on July 22 with a 109-78 rout of the Las Vegas Aces on Friday.
WNBA leading scorer Napheesa Collier scored 25 points, reaching that mark for the 11th time this season. Courtney Williams added 23 as the Lynx set a season high for points, reached 100 points for the third time this season and shot 54.4 percent in a game coach Cheryl Reeve described as their best game from “probably start to finish.”
“We move the basketball, we make you have to guard side-to-side and inside-out, we share it, and we don’t care who gets the credit,” Reeve told winsidr.com last week. “That’s our identity.”
Atlanta (14-10) took a 96-92 overtime home loss to Minnesota on June 27 when Collier scored 26. The Dream are 4-4 since the previous meeting and 7-7 in their past 14 games.
So far, Atlanta is 2-3 on a six-game road trip and has scored at least 85 in both wins. On Wednesday, the Dream bounced back from an 87-72 loss at Las Vegas with a 90-79 win over the Phoenix Mercury.
Allisha Gray scored 28 to match her second-highest total this season while Brittney Griner added 17 in her return to Phoenix.
The performances by Gray and Griner fueled a strong offensive showing for Atlanta. The Dream’s win in Phoenix marked the second time this season they shot at least 50 percent from the field and the ninth time they scored at least 90 points.
“Obviously we feel really good,” Atlanta coach Karl Smesko said. “Anytime you can beat a real good team on their home floor you’re going to feel good about that.”
–Field Level Media