Lynx vs. Dream: Courtney Williams Scores 25 as Minnesota's 13-0 Run Buries Atlanta, 96-81

Minnesota has already led Atlanta by 19 points once this season, and that story ended with the Dream taking their first lead with 11.3 seconds left and walking out with a 91-90 win on opening night. So you will forgive anyone at Target Center who stayed a little tense on Wednesday night, no matter how big the lead got.

This time the lead held. Courtney Williams scored 25, Natasha Howard added 22, and the Minnesota Lynx put away the Atlanta Dream 96-81, evening the season series and handing Atlanta its first road loss of the year. Eighteen days later, the Lynx got their refund.

Fourteen, Then Zero, Then Thirteen

The start looked familiar. Minnesota jumped ahead 23-9 in the first quarter, and for a few minutes it seemed like the kind of game Atlanta could only watch. Then the Dream ripped off 11 straight across the quarter break, and a 3 from Sika Kone capped a 12-3 start to the second that tied it at 26. If you were a Lynx fan, this is where you checked the exits.

Minnesota steadied, pushed the margin back to nine and took a 42-37 edge into the half. Atlanta got within 44-40 early in the third, the closest it would come after the break, and that is where the game turned for good. The Lynx scored the next 13 points in just over two and a half minutes, going from a four-point lead to 57-40 and taking every bit of air out of the Dream's rally plans. A 28-19 quarter sent it to the fourth at 70-56.

Rookie Olivia Miles finished a three-point play early in the final period for a 77-60 lead. Atlanta kept scrapping and got it back to 10 more than once, the last time on Rhyne Howard's floater with 3:19 left. Then Williams took over, and that was that.

The Starting Five Did It All

Williams was the best player on the floor from start to finish. She shot 10-of-15, made three of her five 3s, handed out seven assists and scored seven points in a 1:50 stretch that ended any comeback talk: a 14-foot pull-up at 3:46, a wide-open 3 at 3:04 and a 20-footer at 1:56.

Howard was just as hard to deal with in a different way. She made 11 of 16 shots without attempting a single 3 or free throw, which means every one of her 22 points came on two-pointers. She added eight rebounds, five assists, two steals and two blocks and finished plus-18.

Miles might have had the most complete rookie line you will see this month: 16 points, eight assists, five rebounds and a game-best plus-21. Nia Brodie scored 14 and Kayla McBride had 12 with three steals, so all five starters reached double figures. They needed to, because the bench gave Minnesota only seven points. The starters scored 89 of the 96.

For Atlanta, Allisha Gray was terrific, scoring 21 on 7-of-11 shooting with five 3s in eight tries. Naz Hillmon added 15 points and eight rebounds, and Angel Reese finished with 10 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Rhyne Howard had 10 too, but it took her 14 shots to get there. Coach Karl Smesko summed up the frustration of chasing all night.

"Every time we would try to make a comeback, all of a sudden we would have another defensive breakdown based on great execution on their part," Smesko said.

Thirteen Straight and the Giveaways Behind Them

The 13-0 run is the obvious turning point, but the giveaways explain why it hurt so much. Atlanta turned it over 18 times, and Minnesota scored 33 points off those mistakes. That is about a third of the Lynx's total scoring from the Dream's own errors, and it left Atlanta defending in scramble mode for most of the second half.

"We've been losing too many possessions," Smesko said. The bigger issue for his team was that it had to dig out of another early hole. By the team's count, Atlanta has come up short on a rally only twice this season, and Hillmon knows the math on these nights does not improve.

"We've talked about how we need to be better early," Hillmon said. "It does take a lot out of you, because you're having to claw back, and you feel like you have to make sure that every possession is perfect."

Stats That Matter

• Field goals: Minnesota 40-of-67 (60%), Atlanta 29-of-65 (45%). The Lynx were efficient at every level all night.
• Assists: Minnesota 26. A season high for the Lynx, on 40 made field goals.
• Points off turnovers: Minnesota 33, Atlanta 18. The most lopsided number on the sheet, and the one Atlanta will hear about in film.
• Paint: Minnesota 52, Atlanta 36. Howard alone made 11 shots, none from beyond the arc.
• 3-pointers: Atlanta 11-of-31, Minnesota 7-of-19. The Dream won the 3-point line by 12 points and still lost by 15.

Series Even, Streak Alive

Minnesota moves to 5-2 and has won three straight and five of six. The home record climbs to 2-2 after the Lynx dropped their first two at Target Center, which makes this a meaningful win for a building that had not seen many yet.

Atlanta falls to 4-2, with a two-game winning streak gone. The Dream are now 2-1 on the road, and the 15-point margin was their biggest loss of the season. They head to Portland for a Friday game. Minnesota travels to Chicago the same night.

Groundhog Day, With a Better Ending

Same teams, same floor, same 19-point lead. Bill Murray needed a lot more than two tries to figure out how his day was supposed to go, and all Minnesota needed was one more crack at it. On May 9, the Lynx let this exact number slip away and spent 18 days hearing about it. On Wednesday, Williams and company got the lead back up to 19 in the final minute, with the outcome no longer in question and nobody at Target Center looking at the exits. Sometimes the best way to deal with a bad memory is to replay it and finish the job.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press. Postgame quotes and team notes from the Atlanta Dream.