Lynx rally past Wings in home opener, Paige Bueckers' return to Minnesota

Kent Youngblood, Star Tribune on May 21, 2025

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MINNEAPOLIS — With a tight rotation, balanced scoring and some extraordinary ball movement that made up for a slew of turnovers, the Minnesota Lynx did something that hasn’t happened since 2019.

They have started the season 3-0.

Their 85-81 victory over Dallas in their home opener Wednesday at Target Center — with an announced attendance of 12,772 — was not pretty, and it was far less convincing than Minnesota’s season opener at Dallas last week.

But, after a slow start to the game — Minnesota was down 15-5 with the game barely 4 minutes old — the Lynx rallied to take a lead after the first quarter that they never lost.

But it was not easy. Their 10-point lead early in the fourth quarter was trimmed to three twice and, after Minnesota’s 19th turnover, to two on Arike Ogunbowale’s 3-pointer with 39 seconds left.

But Napheesa Collier’s two free throws with 17.5 seconds ice the game.

The Lynx turned the ball over 19 times — leading to 21 Wings points. But, when they held onto the ball, the Lynx moved it beautifully.

Minnesota had assists on 27 of 28 made baskets. Seven Lynx players had two or more assists. Courtney Williams (seven assists) and Natisha Hiedeman (eight) combined for 15

Napheesa Collier continued her hot start for the season, scoring 28 points with eight rebounds. She has scored 85 points with 18 rebounds in Minnesota’s 3-0 start.

Alanna Smith and Williams scored 13 points apiece. Ogunbowale had 21 for Dallas, which dropped to 0-3.

Wednesday’s game was former Hopkins star Paige Bueckers’ first professional game in her home state. After a relatively slow start, she ended up scoring 12 points with 10 assists.

For the third straight game to start the season the Lynx started slowly, on both ends of the court. The Wings got points from four of five starters in a 15-5 run to start the game and force a Lynx time out mid-way through the quarter.

Things changed after that. The Lynx came out of that time out with a 12-0 run, taking a two-point lead on Collier’s two free throws with 1:46 left in the quarter. Collier had eight first-quarter points for the Lynx, who ended it on a 16-3 run — the Wings made just one of 12 shots over the final 6 minutes — to lead 21-18 entering the second.

With four players five points or more, the Lynx pushed their lead to as many as 10 in the second half, the last time on Bridget Carleton’s 3-pointer with 1 1/2 minutes left in the half.

But the Wings scored the final three points of the half to make it 47-40 Lynx at the half, at which point six Lynx players had at least five points, but none more than Karlie Samuelson’s nine.

The Lynx pushed their lead as big as 11 in the third quarter but couldn’t shake the Wings, in large part because of turnovers.

Still, when Collier hit a shot from the lane with seconds remaining in the quarter, she had scored 12 of Minnesota’s 23 third-quarter points. She had 20 points and the Lynx had a 70-62 lead.