As WNBA playoffs tip off, here’s you need to know about the Minnesota Lynx
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The Minnesota Lynx will start the playoffs Sunday against the Phoenix Mercury.
Minnesota has the number two seed in the WNBA playoffs and will host the Mercury in the first two games of the best-of-three series.
The Lynx have missed the playoffs just once since 2011. During that span, they’ve gone to the WNBA Finals six times, winning the championship four times — in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017.
But the team has not been as dominant since. They’ve been to the semifinals just once since then and haven’t finished higher than second in the Western Conference since then.
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This season, the Lynx have returned to form, finishing first in the Western Conference, just two games behind the top-seeded New York Liberty.
Here’s what you need to know about this year’s Lynx:
Player to watch
Napheesa Collier is as dominant a Lynx player as the team has had since Maya Moore.
Collier is an amazing scorer, rebounder and passer.
She is also an excellent defender, with the highest defensive rating in the league this season.
She would be in the MVP race if it weren’t for the statistically amazing season Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson has put together.
The team’s offense runs through Collier, who hails from the same town — Jefferson City, Mo. — where former Lynx guard Maya Moore grew up. Collier is averaging 20.4 points a game, which is fifth in the league. Collier is also tied for second in steals per game and third in rebounds per game.
Hall of Fame coach
No coach has won more WNBA championships than Cheryl Reeve. She has the third most wins of any coach in league history, is in the top five for winning percentage and top five for playoff winning percentage. She’s also won more playoff games than any WNBA coach in history.
She’s also won WNBA Coach of the Year three times.
But Reeve also has done this with one team over 14 straight seasons. She is the face of the franchise. She was picked to coach the U.S. women’s national basketball team in 2024, leading them to a gold medal.
If there’s been a constant in the Lynx success, it is Reeve.
Best team since the Olympic break
The Lynx won 14 of their 16 games after the Olympic break, including a loss in their final game when they rested many of their star players. Minnesota has been as strong as a team can be finishing up the season.
While Collier has had a great season, Minnesota can score in many ways, with Kayla McBride and Bridget Carleton draining threes and Courtney Williams scoring most of her points from the mid-range.
Minnesota also has the second-best defensive rating in the league and the fourth best offensive rating.
Minnesota has the highest number of assists per game in the league, is third in three-pointers scoring, and the highest three-point shooting percentage.
Even when Collier has an off night, the team can shift the offense to move through another player. But those nights are rare for Collier. In fact, the only game this season she’s had fewer than 10 points was when she left a game with a foot injury in July.
How Minnesota matches up in the playoffs
Minnesota has played Phoenix four times this season, beating them in three of those games. They’ve won all those games by double digits or more.
Their only loss to Phoenix was on a last second three-pointer that the Mercury hit to win by one.
The Mercury are led by one of the best players in the league’s history — Diana Taurasi, who is playing in her 20th and final season. She’s not the player she used to be, but is still a leader and a talent to be reckoned with.
Phoenix has been a middling team through most of the season, with as many wins as losses.
Minnesota plays very well as a team, they are strong defensively and potent offensively. It would be a big surprise if they don’t beat Phoenix.
Minnesota is 19 and 7 against all of the teams in the playoffs.
The Lynx have a losing record against just one team — the Connecticut Sun.
The Sun might pose the biggest threat to Minnesota. Connecticut won two of their three games this season.
Over the course of those three games, there were 27 lead changes, and the total difference in scoring between the two teams over those three games was four points. They’re well matched and give each other a lot of trouble.
The best team in the WNBA all season, through to the end of the regular season has been the Liberty. They’ve been even more dominant than Minnesota. They’re second in points per game, rebounds per game and assists per game. They’ve dominated from three all season, with a league leading 397 three pointers made. Their star power presents a tough match up for anyone, but Minnesota beat them in three of four meetings this season.
A big season for the WNBA
With a crop of young stars coming into the league this season, the hype around women’s basketball has grown.
That’s shown up in attendance and merchandise sales.
The average game attendance for a WNBA game has grown significantly since even last season, according to Across the Timeline, which tracks attendance. Average attendance jumped from around 6,600 per game in 2023 to more than 9,700 per game this season.
Caitlin Clark has had a significant impact on that. For the Indiana Fever alone, the attendance average each game has quadrupled since last season to more than 17,000 per game this season.
For Minnesota, the impact hasn’t been as large. That’s in part because Minnesota was a winning machine in the mid 2010s, and were averaging more than 10,000 fans per game as recently as 2017.
Carley Knox is the Lynx president of business operations.
“This is who we’ve always been. We’ve always been leading the way with our fan base, with our practice facility, with how we treat players, how we approach business,” she said. “Minneapolis, the Twin Cities, the state of Minnesota has been a hotbed for supporting women’s athletics for so long that this isn’t about one or two players, this is just an inflection point in this larger movement.”
Knox says they’ve seen merchandise sales ramp up, and ticket sales continue at a high rate. She expects that will continue as the Lynx start the playoffs.