Minnesota Lynx 88 vs. Atlanta Dream 74 – WNBA Finals Game-1 Second Half Analysis
Third Quarter
Leading by 39-36 at halftime, Atlanta Dream, after surrendering their lead early, kept on making inroads into the Minnesota Lynx defence and pushed their lead to 49-42.
Lynx’s forward Rebekkah Brunson responded immediately and scored five consecutive points, Seimone Augustus then hit a jumper and Lindsay Whalen scored a layup as Minnesota went ahead by 53-51 with 04:32 to go in the third period.
Angel McCoughtry took the charge though hit back with a three-pointer and a jumper to make it 56-53 for the Dream.
With McCoughtry finally coming into her groove, Atlanta snatched the momentum and raced onto a 60-57 lead with 01:02 remaining in the quarter. Augustus hit a shot from downtown and tied the game at 60, but McCoughtry answered with
a pair of free throws to put Atlanta ahead by two, 62-60. With 11 ticks left in the quarter, Taj McWilliams-Franklin drove to the rim to tie the game at 62, heading into the last quarter.
Fourth Quarter
After tightly contested first three periods of the game, the Minnesota opened up the game in the fourth quarter with a 13-0 spurt and went ahead by 75-62 for good. Dream reeled off a 6-2 run to cut their deficit to single-digit,
77-68, with 04:37 remaining in the final buzzer, but Brunson and Whalen scored the next two buckets to push Lynx’s lead back to double-digit at 81-68. The Dream did not get any closer than nine points for rest of the period and Minnesota sealed their first
victory of the series.
Brunson headed Lynx with a double-double, scoring a team-high 26 points and grabbing a game-best 11 rebounds. The 6 ft 2 in forward player shot 10 for 15 from the field and 6 for 7 from free throw line. Augustus was the second
leading scorer for the Lynx with 22 points, seven assists and five rebounds. Lindsay Whalen added 15 points; Maya Moore tallied 11 while McWilliams-Franklin grabbed 10 rebounds in the victory.
Dream’s McCoughtry punctuated a game-high 33 points, including 27 in the second half, grabbed five rebounds, blocked two shots and also had three steals in the loss.
Tags: