2011 WNBA Finals: Minnesota Lynx Take a 2-0 Series Lead In Come From Behind Win Over Atlanta Dream

by Jessica Lantz on Oct 5, 2011 10:56 PM EDT in WNBA Playoffs 2011

The Minnesota Lynx fought to a 2-0 WNBA Finals advantage after taking down the Atlanta Dream 101-95 in front of 15,124 fans at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Atlanta's Angel McCoughtry continued in her fantastic Finals performances with a 38-point night, breaking her own previous record for most points in a WNBA Finals game of 35 from last season's match with the Seattle Stom. However, just like Sunday, her one woman show could not compete with the Lynx as the game wound down.

The Lynx were led by Seimone Augustus' 36 points, including 15 points in the 4th quarter. Augustus finished 11-of-14 from the field and 13-of-16 from the line in her playoff-best scoring performance. Augustus herself had an impressive 7-1 run against the Dream at the line in the span of 42 seconds off the clock in the closing two minutes of the game.

After a ridiculously efficient first half by both squads and a McCoughtry triple at the buzzer, the Dream held an 8-point halftime lead and the score was set at 58-50. The Lynx inched closer in the 3rd quarter, bringing the game to within five at the end of the period. Minnesota got its first lead since the first quarter on a Wiggins free throw to put the score at 77-76 with 8:06 to play in the game.

The final minutes of the contest were tightly contested, and tied at 85s with 3 1/2 minutes remaining before the Lynx took over the final period. Minnesota outscored the Dream 32-21 in the last 10 minutes of the game to end victorious. The series heads to Atlanta with the Dream in a must-win situation in their Game 3 contest Friday at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

ATL/MIN Game 2 Boxscore

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The relative lack of synergy from the Lynx was totally Nate & my fault

…for completely gushing about them earlier today.

But, seriously, all anyone really needs to know about this game they can figure out from Seimone’s line, Angel’s line…and a whopping combined 78 free throws taken.

There’s no way you can have that many interruptions in play and have the game flow smoothly. That’s almost 2 free throws per minute, which means an average of almost 1 free throw every trip to either side of the floor. That’s ridiculous. There were only 34 taken on Sunday, for comparison (they had 55 and 53 in their early June matchups).

McCoughtry alone took 21 free throws tonight. Her season average free throws shot per game? 8.6, with a previous season high of 17 against Washington.

I don’t want people to get hurt, so I do want the refs to keep it clean in terms of dangerously overaggressive play, but I also want to see some actual basketball being played—not a free throw shooting clinic. I hope the refs take a slightly more relaxed “let them play” approach from here on out, because both the Lynx and the Dream benefit greatly from being able to get into a rhythm.

"I'm just playing [a center] on TV" ~Taj McWilliams-Franklin

by Shannon Cotterell on Oct 6, 2011 1:48 AM EDT reply actions

I didn't make a good point on McCoughtry above

That looked whiny. That wasn’t my point. My point was, we all know Angel is really good at getting herself to the line, so to see how much her free throws jumped up this game was eye opening. The Lynx finished the game way ahead of the Dream in free throw attempts: 46 to 32. It’s just not how I like to see them play.

"I'm just playing [a center] on TV" ~Taj McWilliams-Franklin

by Shannon Cotterell on Oct 6, 2011 1:52 AM EDT up reply actions

4TH Quarter Favoritism from the refs?

Atlanta made 3 attempts to drive the lane 3 possessions in a row and draw the shooting foul late in the 4th quarter where it seemed that the shooter was fouled but no fouls were called and Minnesota got possession of the ball. Yet in similar circumstances in the last 5 minutes the refs did call fouls against Atlanta and Minnesota got the free throw attempts.

I think that Atlanta has been forgoing their perimeter shooting attack too much
and taking the gambles on drawing fouls in the lane against a fairly tall and quick
swarm of Minnesota players who can cleanly or not cleanly but free-of-foul-calls
suffocate and neutralize the shooter in the lane with 2 or 3 defenders on 1 shooter.

As one exception I did enjoy the 3 point shot from center sized Alision Bales.
It looked like a smooth shot even when it is unusual for a tall player to take it.

I’d like to see Atlanta extend the series to at least 4th match.

by 77DJK on Oct 7, 2011 4:51 PM EDT reply actions