Lynx Notes
— Minnesota announced its first sellout of the season (13,032) back at
Target Center for the first time since the end of the 2016 season.
— Lindsay Whalen led the Lynx in scoring and assists with 17 points and a
game-high nine assists, just one assist shy of recording her first
double-double of the season. Whalen shot 5-of-8 from the field, while
also collecting two rebounds. With six free throws made today, she is
now 16 free throws away from being eighth all-time (Jackson 1391).
— Sylvia Fowles a double-double tonight (128th career) with 15 points on
6-of-10 shooting and gathered a game-high 12 rebounds. Fowles had 20
double-doubles in the 2017 season.
— Rebekkah Brunson added 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting and nine rebounds.
She now needs 17 points to record 4,000 WNBA career points and just two
rebounds for 2,000 boards as a Lynx.
— Maya Moore recorded her first double-digit effort of the season with 11
points, she filled the box score with seven rebounds, two assists and
one steal.
— The Lynx outrebounded the Sparks 41-25 in tonight’s loss.
— Minnesota tallied 24 turnovers, recording two more turnovers than last
season’s high of 22 (vs. Connecticut on May 23, 2017).
— The Lynx host the Dallas Wings on Wednesday, May 23 at Target Center.
Tip is set for 7 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on Fox Sports North
and can be heard on BOB 106 FM.
Sparks Notes
— Chelsea Gray hit the game winner with 0.2 seconds left on the clock to
put the Sparks up one, 77-76. She finished the night with 18 points on
7-of-16 shooting, while dishing out a team-high eight assists and
snagging six steals.
— Odyssey Sims led Los Angeles with a game-high 21 points on 6-of-14
points, while recording three rebounds and two assists.
— Nneka Ogwumike tallied 19 points on 8-of-15 shooting and led the Sparks
with nine rebounds.
HOME QUOTES
Lynx Head Coach Cheryl Reeve
On tonight’s game…“…What I told them was that I appreciated that players came in
with the will to win. I thought Tanisha Wright had her stretch where she was
just trying to will something to happen. I thought Kizer when she came in, I
probably should’ve played her more, you know, she was doing things to will us
and she was getting exposed on the defensive end. And then obviously Lindsay,
just trying to put us in position, 5.8 with a foul to give, and if we would’ve
executed getting a foul on and we didn’t.”
On the Sparks’ defense…“Well they only have, they have no post players. They had
one post player. Nneka Ogwumike so they were, I’ll be damned that they’re going
to let the ball go inside and they just kept flooding, flooding and we just
botched every opportunity on the inside so we couldn’t hold it. We forced it to
her and it was just dumb, it was dumb basketball. How can you have that big of
an advantage and you can’t exploit it? So, we had good moments where we did, you
know, just give LA credit they had to endure watching the ceremony, whatever
they did, didn’t watch it. They obviously had a chip on their shoulder and we
just didn’t have an edge.”
Lynx Center Sylvia Fowles
On tonight’s game…“That was to be expected though especially after last year
when we dominated the paint, we kind of knew what they were going to do. It took
a while to get some adjusting to, but I mean I’m not going get down on myself.
It’s the first game so you pretty much just adjust from here and watch some film
tomorrow and see what you can do better to get ready for the next game.”
On turnovers…“You know I stopped talking about turnovers but we definitely had
too many turnovers, somethings that’s out of characteristic for us, so that’s
going to be a focal point for next game as well too.”
Lynx Guard Maya Moore
On tonight’s game…“The things that we can control that we didn’t control is the
frustrating part. Every team’s going want to come in here and win so a lot to
learn from, a lot to be motivated by and we will be better than today.”
On mental switch from ceremony to game…“You try to enjoy each moment and then
you’ve got to flip a switch and be ready to play and sometimes it works out well
and sometimes it might not work out well. You don’t know the reason for
everything and we wanted to start out the game better than we did. Again, I
think the turnovers had a lot to do with the start that we had and we can fix
those.”
Lynx Guard Lindsay Whalen
On what sparked her in the fourth quarter…“To try to win. It was kind of like a
now or never thing, so we needed a little momentum, a little more oomph there in
the fourth. Unfortunately, the third was pretty bad for us, the starting group
didn’t come out playing well at all. So the fourth quarter we tried to win the
game at that point.”
VISITOR QUOTES
Sparks Head Coach Brian Agler
On thoughts on the game…“Same old game between the Sparks and the Lynx, same
thing. You know, very competitive I was really proud of how we battled and
competed. Obviously, their team played probably as well as they could have but
you know I just liked our energy and making plays defensively.”
On the final play being under review…“I thought it went in. I didn’t think
Nneka’s at the end of the first half, the one they reviewed, was in. I thought
it was still in her hand, which was right and then I thought Chelsea got rid of
it. It was a heck of a shot, a left-hand shot, at the rim there was a lot of
congestion there, they rotated over, and they got there. She just had the
ability to get it up and in.”
Sparks Center Nneka Ogwumike
On tonight’s win…“I mean it’s 2018 so it feels good to win the first game of the
season and to start the tone off the way we wanted to. We just wanted to get
better, so we started off great.”
On mindset coming into the game…“Don’t foul because I’m the only post player.
So, I was like, I can not get in foul trouble. That was really my main mindset
and I just really wanted to be able to be effective on offense. I think we did a
good job of balancing inside and out because, being the only post player, it
would have been easy for them to just focus on me. I know I can do more but with
what we have right now, I think that it was okay.
Sparks Guard Essence Carson
On how it feels to win tonight after the finals loss last season…“I mean it just
feels good to win, you know. We put last year behind us, although you know over
the past, I don’t know how many months, seven or eight, it has definitely been
on our minds, especially since the series went all the way to game five, losing
like that. This season is a fresh start. We’re working on things. We have focal
points, and today we took care of those areas, and we did good, even though we
came out short manned. We put our hearts into it.”
On playing without Candace Parker…“I mean, as you see we still played together.
It doesn’t matter who were missing, we try to pick up the slack as much as we
can. Again, she’s not the only person that’s missing, but she is a great player.
One of the greatest to ever play the game, but we have a team full of greatness.
Our coaching staff has great minds, and we have a bunch of women who have the
will to get it done. If we showed up with four, we would figure out a way to be
in the game. So we gave our self an opportunity just by staying close in the
game, and then Chelsea hit an amazing shot at the end.”
