The Lynx beat the Wings on Sunday at College Park Center, 81-65 — it was Dallas’ third loss to the Lynx in the first 10 games of the 2025 season.
ARLINGTON, TX — Pushing the tempo. Better movement in the halfcourt offense. Arike Ogunbowale fighting through constant double-teams to break free from her slow start to the season. The continued emergence of Luisa Geiselsoder on both ends of the court. Scoring by committee in the absence of rookie phenom Paige Bueckers.
These are all things first-year Dallas Wings head coach Chris Koclanes highlighted in his pregame comments ahead of Sunday’s matchup with the Minnesota Lynx (9-0) at College Park Center. And, yes, they’re all things the Wings needed to see more of if Dallas wanted to get the train back on the tracks amid their four-game losing streak and heading into the third bout with the Lynx in the season’s first 10 games.
They’re all great goals to have, but when the Lynx, who have already beaten the Wings (1-9) twice and currently sport the best record in the WNBA, are staring you in the face, some of that goes right out the window. The Lynx can beat you so many ways — they’ve got size, skill, speed and depth coursing through their roster — not to mention Napheesa Collier, the prohibitive favorite for WNBA MVP at this early juncture of the 2025 season.
When you’re up against the Lynx, Job No. 1 is to buckle up. Job 1A is to try and keep up. The Lynx are a machine. At times, they’re able to string together these perfect possessions featuring the two-man game between Collier and point guard Courtney Williams, and when your defense gets fixated on all that, Kayla McBride pops open for a nonchalant little 3-pointer. McBride had 21 points for the Lynx on 6-of-10 shooting from 3-point range in Sunday’s 81-65 win over the Wings.
So much of your energy is being expended trying to keep up with all the individual cogs and components that make the Lynx machine go. Then you look up, and you’re down double digits. You’re not playing badly — you’re just… not keeping up. Even when you make your run, as the Wings did late in the third quarter on Sunday, the Lynx can outlast you.
The Wings fought hard against the dying of the light in Sunday’s loss to the Lynx. They didn’t play badly until getting absolutely walloped in the fourth quarter to the tune of a 24-9 scoring deficit. The WNBA schedule-makers have done Dallas exactly zero favors with this brutal stretch to start the season. The Wings dropped an 85-81 decision in Minneapolis on May 21 when Ogunbowale scored a team-high 21 points on five made 3-pointers in the close loss.
Koclanes said in his pregame comments Sunday that he felt the Wings dictated much of the Wings’ loss at Minnesota before letting the game slip away in the late moments. In Sunday’s loss, Ogunbowale broke out again after tallying just eight points in both of the Wings’ last losses to the Los Angeles Sparks and the Seattle Storm. The perennial WNBA All-Star scored 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc in just the first half against the Lynx on Sunday.
Photo by Michael Gonzales/NBAE via Getty Images
The Lynx didn’t double-team Ogunbowale quite as much as other recent opponents have. They didn’t need to. But at the same time, Ogunbowale was assertive in looking for her shots, she passed out of the doubles when they came, and the offense seemed to flow better than it has in the Wings’ last three losses, as the team has been without Bueckers. Bueckers was held out of Sunday’s loss (her fourth straight game missed) to the Lynx with an unrelated illness after clearing the WNBA’s concussion protocol following Friday’s loss to the Sparks.
The Wings battled to within seven points, down just 46-39 at the half. Minnesota held Dallas without a score for the first 4:20 of the third quarter to extend the lead to 53-39. Dallas pieced together a 17-4 run in response, capped by a nice find from JJ Quinnerly to Maddie Siegrist who came open on an inbound play for a hoop inside with two seconds left in the frame.
“I’m proud of a lot of our effort there on the defensive end,” Koclanes said. “I thought our compete was great in a lot of stretches and we found some disruption throughout the game. [In the] fourth quarter, we were 1-for-10 to start that quarter. Tough offensive stretches just mean you have to grind and grind on the defensive end, and a good team like [Minnesota], they really take advantage of any slippage or missed coverage. They were able to step up and hit shots late.”
Collier is WNBA Thanos. She is inevitable. She scored seven points in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter as the Lynx responded with a 14-3 run to end any hopes of a Wings comeback. Collier has scored 32, 37 and now 28 points in the three Minnesota wins over Dallas in the Wings’ first 10 games. Sunday’s game was her fifth straight double-double. Ogunbowale managed just six points (and no field goals) in the second half to lead Dallas with 26 in the latest loss.
“[The Lynx] got more agressive [in the second half],” Ogunbowale said. “They weren’t plugging and sagging off — but there were still shots that I could have hit and didn’t.”
The Wings know all about the pain of trying to keep up with the Lynx at this point. It must be absolutely maddening.