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Michael Voepel
The Minnesota Lynx clinched home-court advantage throughout the WNBA playoffs as they won their franchise-record 31st game Saturday, 94-70, at Connecticut.
The Lynx had five players score in double figures, led by Alanna Smith and DiJonai Carrington with 18 points each. Napheesa Collier had 17 points and nine rebounds.
“The games are so hard, no matter where you are,” Smith said. “So if you have that [home-court] advantage, getting that energy from your fans, it’s huge.”
Minnesota was the league’s runner-up last season to New York, which had home-court advantage in the WNBA Finals and won the decisive Game 5 in Brooklyn. The Finals have expanded to best-of-seven this year.
The Lynx not only have the best overall record at 31-8 but also the best home mark at 18-2.
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“We have a scenario now that if we win our home games, we win a WNBA championship,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. “We believe in our abilities at home; our fan base is terrific. They’re going to turn out like crazy for us.
“It doesn’t mean that it’s easy. But anything that you can get to be an advantage in your favor, we needed to be able to secure that. It was one of our goals, and happy that the team accomplished it.”
Reeve is the longest-tenured coach in the WNBA, having guided the Lynx since 2010. She led Minnesota to WNBA titles in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017, along with runner-up finishes in 2012, 2016 and 2024.
The WNBA season has expanded to 44 games this year; Minnesota got its 31st win in its 39th game. That tops last season’s 30 wins in 40 games. The Lynx’s best winning percentage in a regular season was 82.4% in 2016, when they went 28-6. The franchise’s second-best winning percentage is 79.4%, which the Lynx did in 2017, 2012 and 2011. They are currently at 79.5% with five games to go.
“Week to week in the league … we never really have looked at our record,” Reeve said. “So when you clinch, and you look at the record, you go, ‘Holy cow!’ What does it mean? That this group is really special.”
Even though the Lynx already have clinched the home-court advantage, Reeve said they won’t take their foot off the gas for the rest of the regular season.
“We don’t have that mentality that it doesn’t mean anything. It always means something,” Reeve said. “Can we work on some things that we have an opportunity to look at? Maybe some combinations, build some momentum in some areas.
“This group, I can’t imagine they’re ever going to go into a game going, ‘This doesn’t mean anything.’ It’s a very dangerous place to compete, when you go into a game with a mindset that you’re not going to give it your all.”
Plus, four of the Lynx’s five remaining games are against teams that already have clinched their playoff spot or are in the race: Las Vegas, Indiana and Golden State twice. Thursday’s game at Las Vegas, which has won 12 games in a row, is also big as the final regular-season matchup between top MVP candidates Collier and Aces center A’ja Wilson.
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