For the fourth straight game, the Minnesota Lynx played a game decided by six or fewer points.
They are 0-4 in those contests.
Sunday night’s hurt the most as the home team allowed the Las Vegas Aces to end the game on a 16-3 run to beat the Lynx 80-75 at Target Center.
Damiris Dantas had a season-high 22 points and six assists for Minnesota, which has lost five of six. Odyssey Sims scored 14 and Danielle Robinson added 12.
“It’s something that we’re going to go into this week thinking about, but at the end of the day the first quarter of the season is done, and we have a week to prepare to do better,” said Robinson, whose team is off until Saturday.
Executing for 40 minutes should be a focus.
“It’s always those last five minutes of the game, not paying attention to detail, not locking in, turnovers, them getting points in the paint, fouling, putting back on the free-throw line,” said Sylvia Fowles, who finished with eight points and nine rebounds.
A 10-2 run by Minnesota (4-5) capped by a Dantas layup put the Lynx up 72-64 with 4:47 to play, eliciting lots of noise from the 8,392 in attendance.
But the cheers quickly turned to groans and the sound of fans heading out because Minnesota’s next basket came from Dantas with 18.5 seconds left — after Las Vegas scored 14 straight points.
The fourth quarter fizzle is familiar.
Down by one point after three quarters Friday, Minnesota made just three of its first 11 shots in the fourth quarter as Connecticut increased its lead to 10, a game the Lynx lost by four points.
“In the last five minutes we have to grow in that area of being able to execute at both ends,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. “We never got stops in the second half the way that we got stops early in the game. They were pounding it inside.”
Reeve began her postgame comments lamenting the difference at the free-throw line. Las Vegas completed 24 of 27 free throws; Minnesota was 9 of 10.
“That discrepancy seems, for lack of better words, a little unfair,” she said.
Las Vegas (4-3) has a tough front line, including 6-foot-8 Liz Cambage and 6-foot-5 A’ja Wilson, but Minnesota limited the Aces, which entered the averaging a league-high 39.3 points in the paint, to 26. The Lynx allowed 44 to Connecticut.
But the Aces outside shooters had plenty of open looks, particularly Kelsey Plum, who scored a season-high 21 points, including a 3-pointer to tie the game with 2:36 left.
Playing good defense and with Las Vegas fumbling the ball away at an alarming rate, including eight of its 16 turnovers in the opening frame, the Lynx led by as much as 14 early in the second quarter. Las Vegas, which throttled New York 100-65 Friday, got within 39-35 at intermission.
It wasn’t just the fourth quarter where the Lynx did not finish strong. Las Vegas scored the final five points of the first quarter, eight of the final 10 in the second and finished the third on a 12-2 run.
“They got some good players over there and this is a team that everybody says is going to win a championship,” Reeve said. “We’re not happy with just competing with a team. Honestly, we felt like we should have won that game.”
