Lynx vs. Fever: Kayla McBride Hits Six 3s as Top-Seeded Minnesota Routs Indiana Into the No. 6 Seed

Two nights earlier in Indianapolis, the Fever had hung 96 points on the Lynx and made it look easy. Thursday's rematch in Minneapolis was the sequel nobody in Indiana asked for, and it was over before the popcorn had a chance to cool.

The Minnesota Lynx flattened the Indiana Fever 86-66 at Target Center to close the regular season, with Kayla McBride scoring 22 points on 6-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc. Natasha Howard added 21, Courtney Williams handed out 10 assists, and the loss dropped Indiana to the No. 6 seed, setting up a first-round date with defending champion Las Vegas.

From 7-4 to 25-4 in Four Minutes

With 6:08 left in the first quarter, the scoreboard read 7-4 in Minnesota's favor. That was a basketball game. By the 2:11 mark it read 25-4, and the basketball game had become a demolition.

The Lynx rattled off 18 unanswered points in that stretch, and the Fever, who never led on the night, spent the rest of the evening chasing a car that had already left the parking lot. Minnesota led 32-13 after one quarter, poured in 30 more in the second and went to halftime ahead 62-32.

The bleeding did not stop at the break. A 13-0 Lynx run that started in the final 1:23 of the second quarter and carried into the third pushed the margin to 68-32, and the lead eventually reached 36. At that point the only real question was how many minutes the Minnesota starters would get to spend in warmups on the bench.

McBride Lets It Fly, Howard Cleans Up

McBride was the headliner. She went 8 of 13 overall and 6 of 10 from deep in just 24 minutes, finishing plus-34, and every one of those 3s seemed to land a little harder on an Indiana team that had no answer for her.

Howard was just as brutal in a different way. She scored 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting with eight rebounds, four of them offensive, and three blocks in only 20 minutes. That is a full night's work compressed into half a game.

Williams ran the show, posting nine points, seven rebounds and 10 assists, and Minnesota piled up 28 assists on 33 made baskets. The Lynx also went 15 of 40 from 3-point range. Napheesa Collier had a quiet six points on 2-of-8 shooting, but she was still plus-34 with seven rebounds, which tells you how lopsided the minutes with the starters were.

And Minnesota did all of this without star point guard Olivia Miles, who sat out a second straight game with a left calf injury, according to the AP. Nia Brodie gave the Lynx nine points off the bench on three 3s.

Indiana's Nightmare, in Numbers

This was the kind of night that gets buried in a team's group chat. The Fever shot 25 of 73 from the field (34%) and 5 of 32 from deep (16%), and the AP noted that both their point total and their field goal percentage were season lows.

Caitlin Clark had the roughest evening of all. Two nights after the AP credited her with 27 points, nine assists and seven rebounds in the win over this same team, she scored two points on 1-of-12 shooting, missed all seven of her 3-point attempts and finished minus-27 in 18 minutes. The AP called it a season low. Kelsey Mitchell, who added to her WNBA single-season scoring record in that Tuesday win per the AP, led Indiana with 10 points but needed 12 shots to get there. Aliyah Boston had four points in 13 minutes.

The few bright spots came late. Grace VanSlooten scored eight of her nine points in the final 4:03, Monique Billings grabbed 10 rebounds (six offensive), and the Fever won the fourth quarter 25-10 behind an 11-0 run that bridged the final seconds of the third and the start of the fourth. Garbage-time pride is still pride.

The night got worse for Indiana in the third quarter, when backup guard Tyasha Harris landed awkwardly on a drive and left with a left ankle injury. Per the AP, she was carried off the floor to the locker room.

The Turning Point

It has to be the 18-0 run. Indiana walked into Target Center with momentum from a 19-point win, played the first four minutes on even terms, and then watched Minnesota score on what felt like every trip for the next four. By the time the Fever finally stopped the bleeding, the game, the seed and the evening were gone.

Stats That Matter

• 18-0: Minnesota's first-quarter run, turning a 7-4 game into 25-4.
• 15 of 40 vs. 5 of 32: The 3-point gap, worth a 30-point swing from deep.
• 28-13: The Lynx's edge in assists.
• 1 of 12: Clark's shooting night, with an 0-for-7 mark from 3.
• 36: Minnesota's largest lead.

What It Means

Minnesota closes the regular season 33-11, including 15-7 at home, and the AP noted the Lynx had already secured the No. 1 seed for the second consecutive year. That was settled on Tuesday, when Golden State lost in overtime at Portland. Up next is New York in a best-of-three first-round series starting Sunday, and the AP pointed out that the Liberty beat Minnesota in five games in the 2024 WNBA Finals. The Lynx also took the season series from Indiana 2-1.

Indiana finishes 28-16, including 13-9 on the road, and the final standings bit hard. The Fever lost the season series tiebreaker to Washington, which beat them 93-77 in Indianapolis on Sunday, and the Mystics then jumped past them for fifth by beating Chicago earlier Thursday. Indiana did not learn its first-round opponent until Golden State finished off Los Angeles late Thursday to clinch the No. 2 seed, which sent the Fever to Las Vegas.

Closing Take

Tuesday was Indiana's statement. Thursday was Minnesota's rebuttal, delivered in a much bigger font. The Lynx played without their starting point guard, got only six points from Collier and still won by 20, which is the kind of depth that makes a top seed feel less like a trophy and more like a threat.

For Indiana, the good news is that every playoff series starts at 0-0. The bad news is that this loss, per the AP, is what pushed the Fever to sixth, and sixth means a road trip to face the defending champs. The Fever need Clark and Mitchell to treat this one like a blooper reel: watch it once, laugh if you can, and never play it again.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press.