Napheesa Collier, Minnesota Lynx push Connecticut Sun to brink of elimination with 90-81 Game 3 win

UNCASVILLE — The Connecticut Sun suffered a 90-81 loss to the Minnesota Lynx on Friday in Game 3 of the WNBA semifinals, marking their first home defeat of the 2024 postseason.

The No. 2 Lynx took control of the best-of-five series 2-1 with the victory, and the No. 3 Sun now face elimination when they host Minnesota for Game 4 on Sunday. Connecticut has reached at least the second round of the playoffs for eight consecutive seasons but has appeared in the finals just twice, most recently in 2022 when it lost the series 3-1 to the Las Vegas Aces. Minnesota has not been the finals since winning the WNBA championship in 2017.

After sluggish offensive performances in the first two games of the series, Minnesota superstar Napheesa Collier came out with a vengeance in Game 3. The former UConn standout scored 16 of her game-high 26 points in the first half alone shooting 70% from the field, and she also led the Lynx with six rebounds. The team seemed to feed off of that energy, shooting nearly 60% from the field collectively before halftime.

Connecticut was disastrously inefficient in the first half, missing almost as many layups as it made and shooting just 34.1% from the field. Though both teams struggled from 3-point range, the Sun also went just 4-for-7 at the free throw line to Minnesota’s 8-for-12.

The Lynx went to the bench early and often, getting valuable production in the first half from

forward Cecilia Zandalasini and former UConn center Dorka Juhasz. Zandalasini hit the first 3-pointer of the game from the Lynx after a missed defensive assignment by Sun guard Tyasha Harris. Juhasz, who played a single minute across four previous playoff games, put up three points in her first three minutes on the court and finished with five points, her best showing since Minnesota’s Sept. 1 win over the Chicago Sky.

The Sun have struggled to find offensive contributions from their reserves since Harris suffered an ankle injury in Game 2 of the team’s first-round series against Indiana. She was the team’s No. 2 threat from 3-point range behind Marina Mabrey during the regular season, but Harris logged just five minutes on Friday despite Sun coach Stephanie White’s stated plan pregame to increase her usage. Harris struggled defensively and only recorded one shot, finishing with a turnover as her only stat. Veronica Burton scored all four of Connecticut’s bench points, while Minnesota’s reserves combined for 16.

The Sun’s lone win so far in the semifinal series came when Mabrey sank six 3-pointers in Game 1, but Connecticut’s sharpshooter started 0-for-9 from beyond the arc in Game 3. However, she found other ways to impact the offense out of halftime with seven points in the third quarter, and she also logged a block against Collier.

Long scoring droughts plagued the Sun in the second and third quarters, beginning with a 7-0 run from the Lynx that opened up the first double-digit lead of the game. Once Minnesota went up by 10 in the second, Connecticut never cut its deficit to less than eight. The team went nearly four minutes without a made field goal in the third and entered the final quarter trailing 68-54.

Mabrey hit her first 3-pointer of the game with under four minutes remaining in the fourth, helping the Sun cut Minnesota’s lead to less than 10 points for the first time in the second half. Connecticut’s entire starting lineup scored at least 10 points in the loss, and Jones had her best game of the postseason with 21 points plus four rebounds and five assists, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the equally-balanced effort from Minnesota.

For Collier, it was her highest-scoring performance of the series so far, also adding 11 rebounds for a double-double. She shot 58% from the field and logged a steal and block on defense. Four of Minnesota’s starters recorded double-digit points, and every player who saw the court for more than two minutes scored at least one field goal.