Minnesota was the only underdog to force a decisive Game 3 in the opening round of the WNBA playoffs, but they were stopped short of reaching the semifinals with a 90-75 season-ending loss to the Connecticut Sun Wednesday night.
The Lynx fell into a 15-hole at the half and failed to claw back much closer, trailing by double-digits for the majority of the night inside Target Center in Minneapolis.
DeWanna Bonner scored 25 points to go along with 10 rebounds and six assists and Alyssa Thomas filled the box score with 28 points, 12 assists and six rebounds.
While the Sun had a balanced scoring attack with three players scoring at least 18 points, the Lynx relied solely on Napheesa Collier, who had a game-high 31 points. Minnesota’s next leading scorers were Bridget Carleton with 13 points off the bench and Kayla McBride with 10 points.
Connecticut will now face the No. 2 New York Liberty in one semifinal while the No. 4 Dallas Wings face the No. 1 Las Vegas Aces in the other semifinal.
Minnesota reached the postseason for the 12th time in the last 13 seasons. They’ll now look ahead to the 2024 season, which could be big with offseason additions and a strong rookie class featuring Diamond Miller and Dorka Juhasz entering their second year in the WNBA.
