Lynx vs. Wings: Cheryl Reeve Ties WNBA Regular-Season Coaching Wins Record as Natasha Howard Scores 21

Cheryl Reeve spent Saturday night in Knoxville, Tennessee, going into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. She spent Sunday afternoon in Arlington, Texas, catching the all-time leader in WNBA regular-season coaching wins. Some people just can't take a weekend off.

The Minnesota Lynx made sure she got there, beating the Dallas Wings 85-77 behind a 21-point, 14-rebound day from Natasha Howard and a 21-point, eight-assist day from Olivia Miles. That's win No. 379 for Reeve, which puts her level with Mike Thibault atop the league's all-time regular-season list. She already holds the record for playoff wins. And her team played like it wanted the whole thing wrapped up before the flight home.

Sixteen Up at Halftime

For most of the first quarter this was a regular basketball game. It was 20-16 Minnesota with two minutes to go. Then the Lynx scored the last eight of the period and the first four of the second, a 12-0 run that made it 32-16, and Dallas spent the rest of the half looking for an exit.

A later 8-0 stretch pushed it to 43-26. The Wings went 11-of-37 in the first half and coughed it up eight times, and 45-29 at the break felt generous. Minnesota wasn't done, either. A 9-0 run early in the third made it 58-35, and that 23-point lead was as big as it got.

Here's where Dallas made it a game, sort of. Trailing 60-40, the Wings ripped off 10 straight in under two minutes, and they scored 25 in the third and 23 in the fourth after managing only 29 in the first two quarters combined. Shots finally started to fall. By the time the fourth quarter reached its final five minutes, it was a one-digit game and the crowd of 6,251 had something to yell about.

Then Howard ended the discussion.

Five Baskets, No Mercy

Howard's layup with 4:56 left made it 75-69. She scored again at 4:13 off a Miles pass. She scored again at 3:51 on a drive. She scored again at 2:31. And after Bueckers hit a 25-foot step-back to make it 81-74 and Miles made two free throws, Howard finished the thing with a 4-footer at 1:02, also off Miles, for an 85-74 lead. That's five baskets and 10 points in the last five minutes, every one of them within a few feet of the rim, against a Dallas team that knew exactly what was coming and couldn't do a thing about it.

She finished 9-of-17 with four offensive rebounds, three steals, a block and zero turnovers in 36 minutes. On a day when Courtney Williams shot 5-of-16 and Kayla McBride 6-of-16, Howard's 14 rebounds and steady finishing were what kept the Lynx offense from getting too cute.

Miles was the other half of it. She went 8-of-8 at the line, ran the offense with eight assists and has now scored 64 points over her last three games. She also committed five turnovers, the one blemish on an otherwise grown-up performance. McBride scored 17 with four 3s, Williams added 12, and Nia Brodie had nine points and eight rebounds. Howard and Miles shared the team's best plus-minus at plus-13. Minnesota's five starters scored 80 of the 85, with Maya Caldwell's five in 10 minutes accounting for the rest, which tells you how short Reeve kept this rotation.

Bueckers was excellent for Dallas: 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting, 2-of-4 from deep, with four assists and four turnovers. Fudd scored 21 and had four steals, but it took 23 shots to get there, and four of the nine 3s she took fell. Jessica Shepard grabbed 16 rebounds, and Maddy Siegrist gave the Wings 12 off the bench on only four field-goal attempts. Arike Ogunbowale had the rough afternoon, going 1-of-9 for five points and a minus-14 in 26 minutes.

The Part Dallas Can't Get Back

The final margin was eight. The first-half margin was 16. The Wings outscored Minnesota 48-40 after halftime, which means this game was decided by the 20 minutes they spent trying to remember how to shoot. Everything they did in the second half was real, and none of it could undo what the Lynx had done with that 12-0 run around the quarter break.

Give Minnesota's defense its due as well. The Lynx blocked five shots and had nine steals, and they kept Dallas under 40 percent from the floor for the game at 28-of-74. The one real lapse was that 10-0 Dallas run late in the third, and Howard took care of the cleanup.

Stat Sheet Evidence

• 11-of-37: Dallas from the field in the first half.
• 38-28: Minnesota's edge in the paint, with Howard doing the heavy lifting late.
• 9-of-23 vs. 7-of-23: The Lynx won the 3-point battle by two makes.
• 12-2: Fast-break points, favoring Dallas, which also scored 19 off Minnesota's 10 turnovers. Neither one was enough.
• 379: Reeve's regular-season wins, tied for most in league history.

A Friday Date in New York

Minnesota is 15-4, the best record in the WNBA, and an absurd 9-1 on the road. The Lynx have won two straight and four of five, and they're 3-0 against Dallas this season. Up next is a trip to New York on Friday, and with it Reeve's first crack at having the record all to herself.

Dallas falls to 11-8 and 6-3 at home with back-to-back losses, after an 84-99 result in Las Vegas on Thursday. The Wings get a chance to reset at Connecticut on Thursday.

The Hall May Need a Wing

The usual Hall of Fame weekend involves a nice speech, a good dinner and some photos with people you haven't seen in years. Reeve got her induction, then turned up in Texas and tied one of the biggest records her sport has. If she keeps stacking these, the folks in Knoxville may have to add a wing. As for the only Wings she's been dealing with lately, they're 0-3 against her this season.

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