Minnesota Lynx beat Atlanta Dream 73-67; Win first ever WNBA title
On Friday night, Minnesota Lynx captured the WNBA crown for the first time in their franchise history with a 73-67 win over Atlanta Dream. Lynx were easily the best team throughout the regular season and their fantastic march towards
WNBA glory came to a befitting end in the game-3 of the best five series.
Lynx’s guard forward Seimone Augustus was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the finals, finally earning the WNBA's biggest prize to secure her place among the league’s greats.
Augustus felt particularly humbled by the accomplishment and said in a telephonic interview, "This is amazing," "We finally got over that hump of all those losing seasons that we had. Everything just came together the way it did."
It is the first championship for the Lynx, who have been in existence since 1999. For Dream, the tune remained the same as it was last year and for their faithful; this tune is becoming hard to bear.
The game rolled out in pretty much the same manner as it had in the game-1 and 2, with Dream making a solid start. Dream were the better team till the break, but a third quarter meltdown and another choking act in the clutch cost
Dream the title yet again.
Augustus led Minnesota with 16 points, five rebounds, and four assists. The player shot 7 for 12 from the field. Maya Moore added 15 points on 6 for 9 shooting from the floor, and grabbed seven rebounds while Rebekkah Brunson ended
with 13 points, nine rebounds and three steals. Candice Wiggins came off the bench with 10 points and five rebounds in the victory.
Angel McCoughtry once again racked up a game-high 22 points, grabbed five rebounds and stole the ball for three times. However, the forward hit only 9 for 25. Erika de Souza also recorded a double-double in the loss, grabbing a
game best 15 rebounds and scoring 11 points.
Minnesota took apart one of the league’s best defences with 42.6 percent shooting from the field, limiting the Dream to only 34.6 percent.
Atlanta got off to a great start and headed the first two quarters of the game, taking a 37-33 lead at halftime. Lynx made a great comeback in the third quarter to take a 49-43 lead with less than three minutes to go in the third.
Miller hit a jumper to make it 49-45, but Minnesota ensured a 52-45 lead into the last quarter.
Lynx continued to hold on and were leading by 64-56, with 02:10 to go in the fourth quarter. However, Dream had not given up yet. Harding and McCoughtry turned it on in the passage that followed when Castro Marques made a three
on a Harding dish, Dream came within a point at 64-63.
However, in the last 1:17, Dream crumbled under pressure and conceded a 9 points on free throws to suffer the sweep.
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