Despite some real progress on the offensive end, the Lynx couldn’t get the win against the Connecticut Sun at home on Friday night, falling 85-81. Turnovers were a point of emphasis for the Lynx coming in, and they did a good job taking care of the ball, but they allowed the Sun to shoot 50 percent from the field and their inability to get a bucket down the stretch did them in. The Lynx are now 4-4 on the season.

This was a game all the way through and against arguably the best team in the WNBA—a team that came into the season with and maintains very real championship aspirations—there are a lot of positives to take away. The final score was the score with 1:14 seconds left in the game and Minnesota had the building rocking as Sylvia Fowles delivered two late blocks to keep the game within reach, but they couldn’t get any offense going in the final minute.

There were several Lynx players who had excellent offensive games tonight, led by Odyssey Sims who finished with 25 and shot the ball well after struggling with her efficiency for the last few contests. Sims was also very active on the boards and hit three of her five three-point attempts. Sylvia Fowles also had one of her best offensive games of the season, finishing with 17 on 8-of-10 shooting. Damiris Dantas didn’t shoot the ball well but she had five assists.

Unfortunately, the Sun gave the Lynx fits on defense. Connecticut has a ton of size but is extremely mobile and shoots the ball very well. That was a problem for Fowles and Dantas, both of whom are better-served as post defenders than chasing their opponents around the perimeter. Minnesota did better when they switched Dantas onto Shekinna Stricklen, but it wasn’t enough. The Lynx guards didn’t do their bigs any favors either, putting them in some tough spots by failing to stay in front of Connecticut’s speedy guards.

The Lynx seem to have found some answers to their turnover problems. They only had one turnover in the first half (excluding two shot clock violations) and finished the game with a season-low eleven. Clearly there was some slippage in the second half. Minnesota has obviously worked on finding more angles to throw the ball into Fowles instead of relying on her to catch everything in traffic and that worked out well for Fowles and in turn, the whole team.

Next Up

The Lynx host the Aces for another tough home game on Sunday. Tipoff is at 6 p.m. You can find game info and tickets here.