Top-seeded Las Vegas Aces beat Minnesota Lynx in Game 4 to force deciding Game 5 in their semi-final series
Sunday 27 September 2020 23:12, UK
Breanna Stewart scored a career playoff-high 31 points as the Seattle Storm beat Minnesota 92-71 in Game 3 to sweep the Lynx and advance to the WNBA Finals.
Breanna Stewart scored a career playoff-high 31 points - tying Seattle's franchise playoff record - and Sue Bird had 16 points and nine assists as the Storm beat Minnesota 92-71 on Sunday to sweep the Lynx and advance to the WNBA Finals.
Stewart added six rebounds, seven assists, three steals and two blocks. Mercedes Russell tied her season high with 10 points for the No 2 seed Storm.
Bird and Stewart combined to score or assist on 13 points during a 17-0 run that gave Seattle a 24-8 lead when Sami Whitcomb made a lay-up with 54.2 seconds left in the first quarter.
Stewart made a short jumper to push the Storm's lead to 18 points with 1:05 left in the first half but Minnesota scored 16 of the next 21 points, including six by Crystal Dangerfield and two three-pointers by Odyssey Sims, to make it 48-41 about three minutes into the third quarter.
Stewart answered with back-to-back lay-ups and, after Jewell Loyd made another lay-up, Stewart converted a three-point play and then hit a triple in a 12-0 run that made it 60-41 about four minutes later. Minnesota trailed by double figures the rest of the way.
The fourth-seeded Lynx, who came in averaging a playoff-low 11.0 turnovers per game, committed 19 on Sunday. They made 27-of-59 from three-point range in the first two games of the series but hit just 7-of-22 (31.8 per cent) on Sunday.
Napheesa Collier led Minnesota with 22 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks. Damiris Dantas and Dangerfield - the 2020 WNBA Rookie of the Year - scored 16 points apiece and Sims added 10 points.
The Storm will play either top-seeded Las Vegas or No 7 seed Connecticut in the Finals, which begin on Friday. Seattle lost both regular season match-ups with the Aces - including an 86-84 loss in the regular season finale - and won their two regular season games against the Sun by an average of 18 points.
Angel McCoughtry scored 16 of her 29 points in the third quarter as Las Vegas took control and the Aces beat the Sun 84-75 on Sunday in Game 4 of the best-of-five WNBA semi-finals to force a series-deciding Game 5 on Tuesday night.
McCoughtry finished with six assists, five rebounds and three steals. A'ja Wilson, the 2020 league MVP, had 18 points, 13 rebounds and four assists for top-seeded Las Vegas and Danielle Robinson also scored 18 points.
McCoughtry scored 14 of the first 18 second-half points for Las Vegas and assisted on the remaining four as the Aces turned a one-point half-time deficit into a 55-46 lead midway through the third quarter. Connecticut trailed by at least nine points the rest of the way.
Las Vegas were without reigning two-time WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year, Dearica Hamby, who will likely miss the remainder of the playoffs with a knee injury.
Jasmine Thomas made a career-high six three-pointers on 11 attempts and finished with 25 points for the Sun. Alyssa Thomas added 15 points and DeWanna Bonner had 10 points and a season-high 15 rebounds.
