鈥淲e didn鈥檛 make excuses about coming off the road or being tired,鈥 said coach Cheryl Reeve, whose team won in overtime Friday in Atlanta. 鈥淚 thought our level of focus was really good. Probably had a lot to do with the last time we played these guys. We just didn鈥檛 feel we started the game very well.鈥
That wasn鈥檛 a problem Sunday.
On a night when 11 Lynx players scored and nine had five or more points, the Lynx shot 50.7 percent, had 27 assists and outrebounded the Sun 41-27. Minnesota scored 23 points off turnovers and 18 on the break.
There was other dominance. Collier scored as many third-quarter points (15) as the entire Connecticut team. Collier and McBride combined for 24 of Minnesota鈥檚 27 points in the quarter.
That all added up to a 39-point win. Only a 59-point victory over Indiana in 2017 and a 43-point win over Los Angeles in 2006 were bigger.
That allowed Reeve to rest her starters, none of whom played more than McBride鈥檚 28-plus minutes. McBride played three-plus minutes in the fourth, Bridget Carleton 1:45. The rest sat. And that could be crucial for a team starting a stretch of five games in eight days, one that includes the Commissioner鈥檚 Cup championship against Indiana on Tuesday night.