Lynx, Sparks battle for top seed in key matchup (Aug 26, 2017)
Home-court advantage is now the goal.
For the second straight year, the Minnesota Lynx and Los Angeles Sparks will be the top two seeds in the WNBA playoffs.
The question is: Who will be No. 1?
The teams meet for the third time this season on Sunday at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
This one will be a regular-season rubber match for the Sparks and Lynx, who split their first two games, both of which were in Minnesota.
But more importantly, it will go a long way toward deciding which teams get home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Minnesota (24-6) leads Los Angeles (23-8) by 1 1/2 games in the standings and can clinch the top seed with a win.
"We have worked long and hard all season to be in position to try to be the No. 1 seed in the WNBA playoffs," Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said, according to the Star Tribune of Minneapolis. "Our next up is Los Angeles and that is who we are fighting with in that spot. So it should be a good one."
The Lynx have four games remaining; the Sparks have three.
Both have secured a spot in the best-of-five semifinals.
Minnesota has won back-to-back games for the first time since point guard Lindsay Whalen broke a bone in a hand on Aug. 4. The Lynx are 5-4 since losing Whalen after starting the season 20-2.
And the sometimes-struggling offense was much improved.
The Lynx followed a 105-69 thrashing of Phoenix with an 89-70 win in San Antonio.
Maya Moore had 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the field as Minnesota shot 55.2 percent against San Antonio.
"I definitely wanted to step up. San Antonio is good at home and my matches are players that usually like to score," Moore said after the game, according to the team's website. "Offensively, I was just trying to be aggressive, I felt like my team needed a lift in that first half. I was just looking to be locked in to whatever play was being called or whatever I saw offensively, I was able to find my teammates a few times, so it felt good."
Los Angeles, which has won four straight games, is coming off an 82-67 win in Phoenix.
Odyssey Sims, who was acquired from Dallas in a February trade, led the Sparks with a season-high 28 points.
"I'm just going with the flow of the game, taking shots that I normally do, just being aggressive," Sims told the website Swish Appeal. "I think in the first and second quarter we got to a point where we were not settling for jumpers, but we didn't get anything offensively. Coach told us to attack more and that was our mentality."
The Sparks' final two games are at home, on Friday against Atlanta and Sept. 3 against Connecticut.
The Lynx play at Indiana on Wednesday before finishing the regular season at home against Chicago on Friday and Washington on Sept. 3.
