Lynx fall to 0-2 after blowing 19-point lead to Atlanta
The Minnesota Lynx blew a 19-point lead and lost to the Atlanta Dream 83-77 Tuesday night at Target Center.
Aari McDonald hit a 3-pointer with 42.5 seconds to play to give the Dream their first lead of the night at 80-77. It was the exclamation point on a 19-point second-half comeback by the Dream.
Atlanta trailed Minnesota 64-45 late in the third before storming back, going on a 14-3 run to end the third and cutting Minnesota's lead to 67-59 entering the fourth. Just 49 seconds in the final quarter they had the deficit down to three at 67-64.
They traded buckets for the next seven minutes before Atlanta tied it 77-77 with 2:35 to play. Twelve seconds later Napheesa Collier fouled out on a moving screen, putting the Lynx in a tough spot over the final two-plus minutes.
Collier led Minnesota with 20 points while the Dream were fueled by Allisha Gray's 26 points and 10 rebounds.
Up next: Minnesota at Phoenix, 9 p.m. Thursday
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.