Unbeaten Minnesota Lynx rolls Seattle Storm
MINNEAPOLIS – With their best player on the bench in street clothes, the still-unbeaten Minnesota Lynx turned in their most lopsided win of the season.
Taj McWilliams-Franklin scored 17 points and the Lynx improved to 8-0 with a 79-55 rout of Seattle on Wednesday night.
The Lynx moved within one victory of tying the WNBA record set by Los Angeles in 2001 of victories to start the season. The Sparks repeated winning their first nine games in 2003.
The win came without leading scorer Seimone Augustus, who was sidelined with a right quad strain.
“It’s disconcerting for the rest of the league when we don’t have our best player … and we still win by almost 30,” said McWilliams-Franklin. “That says a lot, especially with the defense that Seattle is known to play.”
It didn’t matter with five Lynx players scoring in double figures – McWilliams-Franklin, Maya Moore, Rebekkah Brunson, Devereaux Peters and Candice Wiggins.
“I told Seimone, ‘it must feel good that we really don’t need you,’” joked Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve. “It felt good for Maya and Wiggins because our thing was when we’re a man down we’ve got to man up. We didn’t want to have any heroes.”
Seattle (1-5) was paced by 14 points from Tanisha Wright, but never fully recovered after falling behind early. Storm coach Brian Agler said that seeing Augustus out of the lineup for Minnesota was a situation he knows well.
“We’re pretty familiar with not having our best player,” said Agler.
Seattle is without leading scorer Lauren Jackson, who is training in Australia for the Olympics.
