MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Caitlin Clark may have been missing, but Natasha Howard and her Indiana Fever teammates more than made up for her absence on both ends of the court.
Howard had 16 points, 12 rebounds and four assists on Tuesday night as the Fever defeated the Minnesota Lynx 74-59 in the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup final.
Indiana played without Clark, their All-Star guard who has been sidelined since June 24 with a strained groin. That didn’t slow down the Fever, who overcame an early 13-point deficit with balanced scoring and a stout defensive performance against the team with the best record in the league.
“You’ve got to have the confidence in yourself and the confidence in your teammates to allow someone else to step up in those moments, and I think that this group is learning that,” said Fever coach Stephanie White, whose team has an 8-8 record.
Howard, the 2019 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, held Lynx All-Star Napheesa Collier to just 12 points on 6-for-18 shooting. Collier also had five of Minnesota’s 16 turnovers.
“Phee’s a great player, but my thing was, make her take hard shots, and that’s what I did tonight,” said Howard, who was named the game’s MVP.
Minnesota had its worst offensive performance of the season, shooting 34.9% from the floor and making 4 of 16 3-pointers after averaging 9.4 3-pointers this season.
“We have a tendency sometimes to get impatient, and I didn’t think that our commitment to moving the basketball and creating advantages — we had a hard time getting that done,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said.
Sophie Cunningham scored 13 points while Aliyah Boston, Aari McDonald and Kelsey Mitchell each scored 12 points.
“I described this entire experience as a gut-check experience, and I mean it intentionally. I mean, physically, mentally, psychologically,” Mitchell said. “We did an unbelievable job of just staying together and weathering the storm.”
Alanna Smith led Minnesota with 15 points. Courtney Williams added 11 points but had a team-high six turnovers.
Minnesota dominated early, as Smith hit a 3-pointer and made an acrobatic layup to cap a 12-0 run that gave the Lynx an 18-9 lead.
They stretched their lead to 27-14 early in the second quarter. But Minnesota was held scoreless for the final 8:17 of the half, gong 0 for 10 from the floor as the Fever stormed back. Cunningham hit a pair of 3s as Indiana closed the quarter on an 18-0 run to take a 32-27 lead at the half.
The Fever built their lead to double figures as Howard scored 10 points in the third quarter and the Lynx never got closer than seven the rest of the way.
When Minnesota rallied to cut the deficit to 60-51 midway through the fourth quarter, Cunningham buried her third 3-pointer of the night to silence the crowd and send the Fever on their way.
The Lynx beat the New York Liberty on the road in last year’s Commissioner’s Cup final. Minnesota earned home-court advantage this year by virtue of its league-best 14-2 record.
After their first home loss of the season, the Lynx sounded eager to learn what they could from the defeat.
“We always want to play our best basketball,” Smith said. “So we have to take this game to heart and … learn from the mistakes that we made in this game, the way we showed up, the way that we prepared, and just make sure that we don’t do it again.”
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