Lynx Fall To Hot-Shooting Mystics In Washington

The Lynx couldn’t come away with what would have been a great weekend win over the Mystics on Sunday afternoon, falling in Washington 101-78.

Minnesota put up a fight but it wasn’t enough to overcome the talented trio of Elena Delle Donne, Ariel Powers and Emma Meesseman. Meesseman in particular was a problem, scoring 25 on 69.2 percent shooting. As a whole, the Minnesota defense just wasn’t there on Sunday. They allowed the Mystics to shoot 54.8 percent from the field.

On the Lynx side, Odyssey Sims was the only player who had a real standout game. She finished with 20 points and eight assists and shot 53.9 percent from the field. Temi Fagbenle also had another solid game off the bench offensively, going 5-for-8 from the field and scoring 12 points, but couldn’t contain Meesseman (though the rest of the team was in the same boat).

It shouldn’t be lost that the Lynx are still in good shape heading into the week. After defeating Atlanta and blowing out Connecticut earlier in the week Minnesota still looks like they are making progress and becoming a better and better team.

Heading into practice this week the focus will continue to be tightening everything up as opposed to introducing new concepts or dramatically changing their schemes. The defense has to get better—the Lynx won’t win many games defending like they did tonight—but they have shown their ability to stop very good teams. They need to find that again.

The Lynx play three of their next four on the road with their only home game coming against this same Mystics team. It’s going to be a tough few weeks, but this is when good teams come together. The playoff push is real and it’s time to get to it.