On a night the Lynx had one of their poorer offensive outputs this season, the defense remained stout.
Dorka Juhász scored 10 points off the bench, had a season-high 11 rebounds and Minnesota beat Atlanta 68-55 Wednesday night at Target Center.
It was the second-lowest offensive output for the Lynx this season, the lowest by its opponent.
“That was not one for the Louvre, that’s for sure,” said coach Cheryl Reeve.
Nonetheless, the Lynx (12-3) have won five in a row and eight of nine.
Bridget Carleton, who missed Monday’s win with an elbow injury, finished with 14 points. Her third 3-pointer with 1:41 left gave Minnesota a 12-point lead. She added another less than a minute later for good measure.
Minnesota outscored Atlanta 12-8 in the fourth quarter.
“She has been so solid for us this year, it’s really fun to see her hitting these shots because she has made the difference in the game a couple of times with her spreading the floor,” said Napheesa Collier, who joked that Carleton cannot play again without a shooting sleeve.
Kayla McBride had eight points, and Courtney Williams had seven points and a team-high six assists.
Entering the night shooting a league-high 46.3% from the field and WNBA-best 40.5% from outside the arc, the Lynx ended at 35.5% and 31.8% respectively.
The Dream shot just 28.8% and missed 19 of 23 3-point attempts.
“Court reminded me, she said, Cheryl when we didn’t score, they didn’t score,” Reeve said. “There were a lot of looks that Atlanta had that I certainly would not want to give them again. I’m sure they probably feel the same about us. But this is what today was to be.”
The Dream tied a season high with 13 offensive rebounds.
“We got kind of lucky. Our rebounding was really, really flat,” said Collier, who scored 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds. “They missed a lot of shots as well. We just need to be better. It’s definitely a learning experience.”
Collier was 6 of 17 from the field after making 5 of 17 shots Monday. In her past three games, the Olympian has uncharacteristically missed all 12 of her 3-point tries.
“Phee’s always going to be there. Some days offensively you can’t miss, and other days or over a couple games it’s not your time, for whatever the reason,” Reeve said.
Instead of letting a tough shooting night drag her down, Collier strives to thrive in other areas.
“I want to help the team as much as I can in any way. I know I have a heavy responsibility on my shoulders, and if I’m not performing in one area, I need to step it up even more in other areas,” she said. “It’s frustrating when I’m missing shots and, obviously, I hope that changes in the future (because) I want to impact the game that way too. But defense is just as valuable. … It makes me hungrier on defense because I want to make up for what I’m not doing on offense.”
Collier also had four assists, a block and a steal.
“She understands that the game is so much more than scoring. Yeah, it feels better when you’re scoring. Phee is not a front-runner, she’s not one that has to score to play well,” Reeve said. “When your best player does that, it means you can have a good team.”
Led by Juhász, the Minnesota bench outscored Atlanta 19-6.
“We know we have to bring the energy, that’s our job, that’s our role. Everybody brings it in the second unit. We just know being patient, waiting for our turn, and we always emphasize bringing energy,” said Juhász, who was a team-best plus-19.
Atlanta (6-7) not only lost for the third time in four games, but the Dream’s top scorer, Rhyne Howard, needed help to the locker room with a lower left leg injury in the third quarter.
