Lynx vs. Mercury: Courtney Williams Scores 30 as Minnesota's 67-Point Half Buries Phoenix 111-77

At some point on Monday night in Phoenix, somebody at the scorer's table must have wondered whether the game had been left on rookie difficulty. Minnesota made 27 of its 36 shots in the first half. It went 7 of 9 from 3. It did not attempt a single free throw in the second quarter and scored 32 anyway.

The Lynx beat the Mercury 111-77, and the night had all the competitive tension of a group project where one person already finished the slides. Courtney Williams needed only 20 shots to get to 30, Olivia Miles piled up 19 points and 10 assists, and Minnesota picked up its fifth straight win while staying unbeaten on the road. The AP pegged the 67 first-half points as third-most for any half of a road game in WNBA history, the kind of note that follows a defense around for a while.

Phoenix Led for 22 Seconds

Natasha Mack's layup gave the Mercury a 2-0 lead with 9:41 left in the first. Williams tied it 22 seconds later, Nia Brodie followed with a 3, and that was the entire Phoenix lead for the evening. Miles scored nine of Minnesota's first 19 points by going to the rim, and the Lynx were up 19-8 with 5:45 still left in the quarter.

Phoenix got one real swing, an 8-0 run from Noemie Brochant, Alyssa Thomas and Kahleah Copper that made it 19-16. It lasted 13 seconds as a story. Minnesota led 35-22 after one.

The second quarter was somehow worse for the home team. The Lynx shot 14 of 18, went up 46-26 behind an 11-4 start, and finished the half on eight straight: a 25-foot Antonia Delaere pull-up, a 25-foot Kayla McBride 3 and a Natasha Howard reverse layup that made it 67-38. Copper's 8-footer with 0.6 left made it 67-40.

The only heat after that belonged to Copper, who scored seven straight Phoenix points in the third on two 3s and a free throw to reach 78-52. Brodie's layup ended it, and the lead was 88-56 going to the fourth. Delaere then hit two 3s off Miles passes in an 8-0 run, and the margin peaked at 37 when Anastasiia Olairi Kosu's layup made it 111-74 with 1:04 left.

Eight Pull-Ups and a Rookie Running the Show

Williams' shot chart reads like a rejection letter to modern analytics. Eight of her 13 makes were pull-up jumpers from between 11 and 19 feet, the shot every spreadsheet tells you to stop taking. The rest were two running layups and three 3s on three attempts. She had 19 by halftime on 8-of-10 shooting, nine more in the third, and got to 30 on a 17-footer with 1:36 left, all in 28 minutes.

Miles got her 19 without attempting a 3. She was 7 of 9 from the floor and 5 of 5 at the line, and she had 13 points and six assists by the break after going 5 for 5 in the half. She has now reached double figures in all nine games of the season, which the AP says ties Seimone Augustus and Tonya Edwards for the longest such streak by a rookie in franchise history. Her last three assists of the first half all went to Howard, who scored all 11 of her points before intermission on 5-of-6 shooting.

The bench kept the pressure on. Delaere scored 13 on 3-of-4 shooting from deep with six assists, and her plus-23 matched Miles for the team high. Kosu had 12 points, six rebounds and three blocks in 18 minutes. Teaira McCowan, in the spirit of the evening, used all six of her fouls in 15 minutes and still went plus-13.

For Phoenix, Copper led with 18 on 5-of-13 shooting and did not score in the fourth. Twenty days earlier she had hung 30 on these same Lynx in an 88-84 loss. Brochant added 11, Monique Akoa Makani had 10 with eight coming at the line, and Mack grabbed 11 rebounds. Thomas finished with six points and five assists, went 1 of 6, and took no shots after halftime.

The Answer at 19-16

If you need one moment, take the 4:09 mark of the first quarter. The Mercury had just scored eight in a row and Minnesota's opening burst looked like it might be a mirage. Thirteen seconds later, Williams drilled a 3 off a McBride pass, and starting with that shot the Lynx outscored Phoenix 27-10 over about seven and a half minutes to reach 46-26.

Phoenix had found one way to slow the game down, going 16 of 18 at the line in the first half. Free throws can keep a team alive for only so long when the other side is shooting 75% at the other end.

Stats That Matter

• 34 to 12: Two-point field goals made. Both teams hit exactly 10 3s, so Minnesota's whole margin and then some came from inside the arc.
• 50-18: Points in the paint. Phoenix also finished with zero blocks to Minnesota's five.
• 63.8% to 34.4%: Field-goal shooting, on 44-of-69 for the Lynx and 22-of-64 for the Mercury.
• 28: Lynx assists, two more than the 26 the AP called a season high five days earlier.
• 13 of 13: Minnesota at the free-throw line, in case anyone was still looking for a flaw.

Five for Five Away From Home

Minnesota is 7-2 with five straight wins and a 5-0 road record, and the league has it 1-0 in the Commissioner's Cup with Phoenix at 0-1. The last two road games have been decided by a combined 55 points. All of it has come without Napheesa Collier, who the AP said in May would be out until at least early June following ankle surgery and who was again listed as did not dress. A three-game homestand opens on Thursday against Golden State.

Phoenix is 2-8 overall and 1-4 at home after a sixth straight loss, a slide that goes back to May 19 against Toronto. The AP noted on Friday that five straight was the franchise's first such run since 2023. A four-game trip starts Wednesday in Seattle.

Blame the Planets

Every friend group has that one person who pins a bad month on Mercury in retrograde. Phoenix has a better case than most: six straight losses, one home win and a 34-point defeat in its own building. The less mystical explanation is that Williams got to her spots whenever she felt like it and Miles delivered the ball on time, every time. The good news for the Mercury is that retrograde eventually ends. Minnesota doesn't seem to have an end date.

Stats from the official box score and play-by-play via WNBA.com. Game details and the Commissioner's Cup records as reported by the Associated Press and WNBA.com.