Lynx vs. Sparks: Kayla McBride Scores 24 for Fifth Straight 20-Point Game as Minnesota Wins Fourth in a Row

Kayla McBride went almost 36 minutes on Wednesday without making a 3-pointer. Then, with 4:05 left and the Lynx up seven on a Sparks team that refused to leave, she buried a 24-footer off a Courtney Williams feed, and an entire afternoon of misfires stopped mattering.

McBride finished with 24 points, her fifth straight 20-point game, Williams added 19, and Minnesota pulled away for a 96-87 win over the Los Angeles Sparks at Target Center, the Lynx's fourth in a row. It took a second-half shooting thaw, a third-quarter avalanche and a lot of Los Angeles turnovers, but the noon tip ended with the WNBA's winningest team doing what it does.

Zero for Eleven, Then the Flood

The first half was a test of faith. L.A. struck first with an 8-0 run that turned a 5-4 game into 13-4 by the 4:44 mark of the first, and it led 18-12 after a quarter. Minnesota answered with a 12-0 burst in the second to go up 26-20, but it could not make a thing from deep. The Lynx missed all 11 of their 3-point attempts before halftime and trailed 39-37 at the break.

The Sparks surged again after intermission. A 9-0 run early in the third gave them a 50-42 lead, they stretched it to as many as nine, and Minnesota was one more empty trip from a real problem.

What happened next is why this team has 19 wins. The Lynx scored on 10 straight possessions during a 19-3 run, and the back end of it was a 14-0 stretch that flipped a 56-49 deficit into a 63-56 Minnesota lead by the 2:36 mark of the third. L.A. deserves credit for coming right back and closing the quarter within 68-67, but Minnesota was finally shooting like itself.

McBride's 3 started the final separation. Nia Brodie banked in a 3 on the next trip and hit a 17-foot turnaround after that, and it was 89-76 with three minutes left, matching Minnesota's biggest lead of the night at 13. L.A. still made it interesting, with Rae Burrell's free throws and running layup plus a Nneka Ogwumike pull-up cutting it to 91-84 with 1:28 to go. McBride ended that conversation with a 25-footer, again off a Williams pass. Erica Wheeler's step-back 3 made it 94-87, and Natasha Howard's basket with 47.7 seconds left closed the book.

Five Straight for McBride

McBride's 24 came on 8-of-16 shooting, 2-of-8 from deep and 6-of-7 at the line, which is a polite way of saying the 3-ball was mostly on vacation and she got her number anyway. Her last five games read 28, 23, 25, 37 and 24. That's the part of a scoring streak that matters: the nights it would be easy to fall short, like this one, she found another route.

Williams scored 19 on 7-of-13 with four assists and set up both of McBride's late 3s. Rookie Olivia Miles was having a terrific afternoon, with 18 points, five assists and three steals in 26 minutes, before a driving layup with 6:03 to play put her on the floor, appearing to roll her ankle. She did not return, and that's the one line from this game Minnesota fans will be refreshing all week.

Howard did the dirty work with 10 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and three steals. Anastasiia Olairi Kosu gave the Lynx nine points off the bench, seven of them at the line, and finished plus-17, the team's best mark.

L.A. got a loud afternoon from its best players, and it wasn't enough. Burrell scored 24 on 8-of-14 and went a perfect 6-of-6 at the line. Ogwumike posted 23 points, 12 rebounds and five assists without a turnover, and those 23 pulled her even with the 6,263 points set by Lisa Leslie atop the Sparks' career list. Cameron Brink added 10 in 15 minutes in her first game since June 15.

Twenty Turnovers, Thirty Points

The 19-3 run is the obvious hinge, but it had a sponsor, and that sponsor was L.A.'s ball security. The Sparks turned it over 20 times, and Minnesota converted those into 30 points.

Look at what L.A. did otherwise. It shot 48 percent to Minnesota's 50, won the boards 31-25 and made nine 3s to Minnesota's eight. Those are numbers that beat a lot of teams on the road. Spot the league's best record a 16-point edge in points off turnovers, though, and you've written your own ending. Minnesota's 13 steals were more than double L.A.'s six, and that pressure kept feeding a 16-9 advantage on the fast break.

The other swing was pure gravity catching up. Minnesota went 8-of-14 from 3 after halftime, and six different players made at least one: McBride, Brodie, Williams, Miles, Antonia Delaere and Maya Caldwell. When that many people can hurt you, an 0-for-11 half starts to look less like a slump and more like a loan coming due.

Stats That Matter

• 30-14: Points off turnovers, Minnesota's way.
• 0-for-11, then 8-of-14: Minnesota's 3-point shooting by half.
• 13-6: Steals, in favor of the Lynx.
• 19-3: The third-quarter run that flipped the game, with 10 straight scoring possessions.
• 16-9: Fast-break points, Minnesota again.

What It Means

Minnesota improves to 19-6 and 9-4 at home. That's four straight wins and the most victories in the WNBA, and the Lynx have now beaten L.A. twice this season, by 16 in June and by nine here. Portland visits on Saturday, and the big question until then is Miles's ankle.

Los Angeles drops to 10-13 and 5-6 on the road after back-to-back losses, with a quick turnaround for a Friday game in Chicago.

Keep Shooting, Apparently

Minnesota handled its first half from 3 the way you handle a bad haircut: ignore it, wait it out and act like it was always the plan. Eleven straight misses, then eight makes from six different people, plus a fifth straight 20-point game from a shooter who barely needed her jumper to get there. Shooters always swear the next one is going in. At 19-6, the Lynx have earned the right to be insufferable about it.

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