Minnesota’s dilemma before the playoffs begin
Cheryl Reeve has already locked up the No. 1 seed. The question now is what to do with it. The Minnesota Lynx close the regular season Thursday night at home against the Indiana Fever, and their coach faces a real choice: rest her starters for the postseason or push them through a rough patch that has produced losses in four of the last five games.
Minnesota has stumbled into the finish line, capped by a 96-77 blowout loss at Indiana on Tuesday. Guard Olivia Miles was a late scratch with a left calf injury, and Reeve pulled four starters for the entire second half once the outcome was decided, wary of risking anyone with the playoffs opening Sunday.
Forward Napheesa Collier did not shy away from the result. “We should be disappointed and embarrassed by the product we put on the floor,” she said.
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Indiana arrives with momentum and a scoring leader
The Fever head into the rematch having won four of their last five and holding the No. 5 seed. Caitlin Clark nearly posted a triple-double in Tuesday’s win, finishing with 27 points, nine assists and seven rebounds, and she leads Indiana’s case that the Fever can match up with anyone in the league.
“We’re scary when we’re clicking,” Clark said. “We’re the best offensive team in the league, and we’ve shown moments where we can be really good defensively. I feel very confident in everything and everybody that we have in this locker room.”
Kelsey Mitchell paces Indiana at 25.0 points per game this season, with Clark averaging 22.8 and Aliyah Boston adding 16.4. Boston pointed to composure as the difference-maker heading into the playoffs. “It’s about staying poised and staying composed,” she said. “There’s always going to be ebbs and flows, but I think just the way that we respond has to be pretty level-headed.”
A gap that still favors Minnesota
For all of Indiana’s late surge, Minnesota still owns the league’s best record by three games. Miles tops the Lynx in scoring at 19.8 points per game, with Kayla McBride and Collier tied for second at 17.5 apiece. The two teams’ regular-season series finale carries little weight in the standings but plenty in the psychology of a Lynx group that has looked shakier by the week heading into a postseason it is expected to control from the top seed.
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