Top-seed Lynx stumble in playoff tune-up in Indiana

The WNBA playoffs begin on Sunday and the Minnesota Lynx have earned the top seed Minnesota Lynx's Bridget Carleton puts up a shot against Indiana Fever's Brianna Turner during the first half of a WNBA basketball battle Tuesday Sept in Indianapolis AP Photo Darron Cummings But don t tell coach Cheryl Reeve that her squad can exclusively coast to the finish line More than anything it s understanding who we are she commented pregame Tuesday More than anything it s shoring up what we consider areas that need to be shored up I m obviously not going to reveal all those things but we ve taken a deep dive on ourselves We re trying to use these games to get a little bit better to gain chosen momentum going into the playoffs And her reaction after the - loss in Indiana Thursday is another chance to see if we can play Lynx basketball she mentioned of the association s final contest of the regular season at home against Golden State Hopefully we ll give our fans what they deserve The Lynx are still a league-best - but - in their past outings and - in their past six Minnesota made of shots but a season-low two on -point attempts The league s top -point shooting band at the Lynx missed their first tries including all in the first half We were wide-open on bulk Reeve commented They just played harder than us this day which we know every time we put on this jersey is not acceptable The Lynx as a whole we hold ourselves to a standard and regardless of the shots going in or not we didn t compete noted Jessica Shepard who was of from the field for points to go along with seven rebounds to lead the Lynx She added Playoffs are coming and there s a lot of teams that are playing really well What we did tonight is not going to get us where we want to go Shepard started because leading scorer and feasible league The bulk Valuable Player Napheesa Collier got the night off for rest purposes DiJonai Carrington missed her third straight meeting with a subluxed left shoulder but Reeve noted it s trending in the right direction No one on a group playing its third straight road meeting will use either absence as a reason for allowing Indiana to shoot including in the opening half The Fever - scored the first points of the challenge added a - run late in the frame and led by as various as points in the second quarter If you don t make shots you got to find a way to go Hey let s just work through this let s just weather the storm How do you do that You get a little tougher you get a little harder to play against you defend For whatever reason we lacked that mindset Reeve commented Maria Kliundikova had points off the bench Alanna Smith had points and Courtney Williams contributed eight points and five assists Minnesota scored the first nine points of the second half to make it a four-point meeting but the Fever scored of the next points and the Lynx were down - The Indiana lead reached in the fourth quarter Related Articles Big third quarter boosts Lynx to win Lynx top Fever in Napheesa Collier s return Lynx top Liberty again to expand first-place lead to games Phee-less Lynx rally to beat Storm in Seattle Lynx acquire defensive demon DiJonai Carrington in deal with Dallas