Tuesday night brought game 1 of the WNBA Playoffs semifinals series between the Washington Mystics and Minnesota Lynx. Since the Lynx held Home Court Advantage they were able to cruise to an opening game win in the best-of-five game series. Seimone Augustus led the scoring effort while Renee Montgomery, Sylvia Fowles, and Maya Moore also chipped in. Here's the latest Mystics vs. Lynx game recap with top performers, stats, and what's up next in the series.
Game 1 recap
In tonight's game, Minnesota jumped out to a 26-18 lead early and finished with a 53-38 lead at halftime.
They continued the onslaught in the third quarter by outscoring the Mystics 31-18. Even though Washington had a 25-17 fourth quarter it wasn't enough to come back from being down double-digits in this first game of the series.
The Mystics held a lead until there was about 4:30 remaining in the first quarter. After that, Minnesota took control of the game and never really looked back, keeping a lead for the remainder of the contest.
The Minnesota Lynx victory was led by guard Seimone Augustus. She shot 11-for-17 from the field including a 2-of-3 rate from long range to finish with 24 points. Augustus also had five rebounds and three assists. Teammate Sylvia Fowles was 8-for-13 and had 18 points along with seven rebounds, while Renee Montgomery came off the bench to score 18 points on 7-for-10 shooting.
Maya Moore also chipped in with 14 points in the win.
The home court advantage certainly gave Minnesota the scoring edge. They hit 41-of-69 shots for a 59.4 percent rate for the game. In addition, the Lynx hit 70.6 percent of the 3-point shots they attempted. The team also outrebounded Washington 31-27 and had just eight turnovers compared to 11 for the visitors.
On the losing side, the Washington Mystics received 17 points from Elena Delle Donne on 6-for-11 shooting in addition to her six rebounds. Tiffany Ruffin-Pratt went 5-for-9 and had 16 points while Emma Meesseman had 15 points on 6-for-13 shooting. As a team, the Mystics shot 44.6 percent overall and 42.9 percent from downtown.
Next game?
The Minnesota Lynx now hold a 1-0 lead in this best-of-five game series. Game 2 of the series takes place Thursday night. ESPN2 will provide live televised coverage of the game starting at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.
The winner of this WNBA Playoffs semifinals series will take on the winner of the Phoenix Mercury vs. Los Angeles Sparks series in the 2017 WNBA Finals.