WNBA Playoffs 2011 – Top ten games of the post season: Part 5
Last but not the least were the WNBA Finals. At this stage of the season, close games are expected and it was exactly the case this time around.
WNBA Finals Game-1: Minnesota Lynx 88 – Atlanta Dream 74
Minnesota Lynx opened the best-of-three WNBA final series with an 88-74 victory over Atlanta Dream on October 2 at Target Center.
Minnesota’s Rebekkah Brunson was Atlanta’s biggest problem on the night. Brunson ended with 26 points, shooting 10 for 15 from the field, and 11 rebounds. Seimone Augustus added 22 points, seven assists and four rebounds while
Lindsay Whalen came off the bench with 15 points and six assists.
Angel McCoughtry, the Dream’s 25-year-old forward, had a game-high 33 points and five rebounds in the losing effort. Lindsey Harding scored 20 points and Iziane Castro Marques tallied 10 points for Atlanta.
Minnesota shot 46.1 percent from the field, holding the visiting team to just 37.3 percent.
Dream were the better team in the first quarter and after some back and forth action, they were able to take an 18-14 lead into the second.
Dream maintained their dominance in the next frame and with 01:23 left, they took a 39-32 lead. Going into the second half, they were leading Lynx by 39-36. Lynx came into their own in the second half and at the end of the third
period, tied the game at 62. Minnesota then pulled away early in the fourth and scored the first 13 points of the fourth quarter to put the game to bed.
WNBA Finals Game-2: Minnesota Lynx 101 – Atlanta Dream 95
On October 5, Augustus pulled off a monstrous night with 36 points as Minnesota once again raced away down the stretch to stun Atlanta 101-95 in game-2 of the WNBA finals. The win put Lynx on the brink of their first WNBA title.
Lindsay Whalen and Jessica Adair contributed 13 points each in Minnesota’s second consecutive victory of the series. Atlanta’s forward Angel McCoughtry once again led all scorers with 38 points on 10 for 22 shooting from the field
and 16 for 21 from free throw line. Lindsey Harding had 16 points; Iziane Castro Marques came off the bench with 14 points while Sancho Lyttle added 13 points.
McCoughtry ruled the court in the first half with 24 points as Atlanta held a 58-50 advantage at intermission. Lynx cut the deficit by three points in the third quarter and then started the fourth on a 12-4 run to regain the lead.
Atlanta responded swiftly though and took an 85-81 lead late. What followed though was a stretch of offensive artistry, which witnessed Lynx reel off a 16-2 to take commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five WNBA championship series.
WNBA Finals Game-3: Minnesota Lynx 73 – Atlanta Dream 67
The Lynx were able to capture the franchise’s first WNBA championship with a 73-67 win over the Dream in Game 3 on October 7 at Philips Arena.
Seimone Augustus had 16 point on 7 for 12 shooting from the field and was awarded with Finals MVP. Moore added 15 points and seven rebounds while Brunson ended with 13 points and nine rebounds.
McCoughtry topped all players with 22 points and pulled down five rebounds. Erika de Souza had 15 rebounds and 11 points in the defeat.
Atlanta once again started well and keyed by 11 points from McCoughtry, they were leading by 37-33 going into the break. In the third quarter though, the Lynx came out broke the game and by the time, the teams went into the last
frame, they were carrying a 52-45 lead.
Staring at elimination at the final hurdle for the second year running, Dream charged back and trimmed Minnesota’s lead to just one, 64-63, with 01:17 left in the final buzzer. However Minnesota responded with five consecutive
free throws to dampen their spurt and hung tough to win the title.
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