The Lynx built a 29-point lead over the Fire on Wednesday night and nearly handed all of it back, falling from 64-35 in the third quarter to a one-point game before escaping with an 85-81 win.
Portland ripped off a 29-4 run spanning the third-quarter break and the first 13 points of the fourth, a stretch that turned a blowout into a fight. Portland pulled within one point in the fourth quarter, one basket from a comeback that would have rewritten WNBA history instead of just threatening it. By the time it settled, Portland had outscored Minnesota 48-28 after halftime, turning a 24-point cushion at the break into a one-possession game.
Minnesota has been the best team in the WNBA by a wide margin all season. Wednesday, for the first time, the Lynx found out how the other teams feel when that margin actually shrinks in real time. The Lynx improved to 28-7 with the win, a record still no other team in the league can touch. Portland’s comeback bid still fell one bucket short of the largest in WNBA history, the Chicago Sky’s 28-point rally past Las Vegas in 2022.
Two days before this game, the league’s own account was still posting about just how far ahead of everyone else Minnesota was:
https://x.com/WNBA/status/2086860123834585108
That’s the context that makes Wednesday matter more than a four-point final score suggests. A team that’s spent the entire season as the league’s clear best had never had to answer this specific question live, and for twelve real minutes, they didn’t have a great answer.
It was Kayla McBride’s late steals that saved the Lynx from history, not the size of the early lead. Olivia Miles’ record-setting rookie season bought Minnesota margin for error all year, and it showed up again in the final minute: her two free throws with 26.5 seconds left pushed the lead back to five. McBride, who finished with 19 points and four steals, sealed it by picking Portland’s pocket and hitting two more free throws that stretched the margin to seven with 18.9 seconds left.
Napheesa Collier added 20 points and 9 rebounds, part of a season that’s also included Collier’s return from injury that never actually slowed her down.
My mom, who tracks the Lynx about as closely as she tracks the stock market, texted afterward asking if Minnesota was “still good.” Telling her yes was easy. Explaining why they’d needed McBride’s steals to prove it took longer.
None of this changes the standings. Minnesota is still 28-7, still owns the rest of the WNBA playoff race by a wide margin, still walked out of Portland with a win most teams would take and forget by morning. But composure isn’t something a spreadsheet measures, and this was the first time all season the Lynx had to find out if they had it live, with the margin down to one instead of twenty-nine.
Best team in the league. Twelve minutes from proving they weren’t.
