{"id":865961,"date":"2026-08-21T08:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T08:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/865961\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T08:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T08:04:15","slug":"miles-has-20-points-before-ankle-injury-wnba-best-lynx-beat-valkyries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/865961\/","title":{"rendered":"Miles has 20 points before ankle injury, WNBA-best Lynx beat Valkyries &#8211;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nujournal.com\/sports\/mn-state-sports-apwire\/\" class=\"article_cat_label\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MN State Sports<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                                        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26232111127966-450x300.webp\"  alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Minnesota Lynx guard Olivia Miles, left, drives to the basket against Golden State Valkyries guard Veronica Burton (22) during the first half of a WNBA basketball game in San Francisco, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026. (AP Photo\/Jeff Chiu)<\/p>\n<p>By JANIE McCAULEY<\/p>\n<p>AP Sports Writer<\/p>\n<p>SAN FRANCISCO &#8212; Olivia Miles had 20 points, seven assists and five rebounds before leaving midway through the fourth quarter with a left ankle injury, and the Minnesota Lynx ran away early from the Golden State Valkyries before holding on for a 77-66 win Wednesday night in a matchup of the WNBA\u2019s top teams.<\/p>\n<p>Kayla McBride also scored 20 for the Lynx and did Stephen Curry\u2019s signature \u201cnight night\u201d gesture after a late 3-pointer at Chase Center, home to Curry\u2019s Warriors. Napheesa Collier added 18 points and eight rebounds for the league-best Lynx.<\/p>\n<p>Miles, Minnesota\u2019s standout rookie who shot 8 of 10 from the field, turned her ankle when she stepped on Collier\u2019s foot. She limped off the court and went to the locker room briefly before returning to the bench area.<\/p>\n<p>Veronica Burton had 14 points and seven assists for the cold-shooting Valkyries (25-10), who have yet to beat Minnesota in seven meetings. The top-seeded Lynx swept the expansion Valkyries in the first round of the 2025 playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>Janelle Salaun\u2019s 3-pointer with 9:41 left pulled the Valkyries within 54-44, and she made one free throw the next time down before a layup with 8:18 remaining that cut the lead to 54-47. But Golden State didn\u2019t get enough defensive stops in crunch time.<\/p>\n<p>The Valkyries\u2019 Kaila Charles left in the fourth after she took a hit to the eye.<\/p>\n<p>The Lynx (30-7) have won five straight and 15 of 16, improving to 11-1 on the road against the Western Conference.<\/p>\n<p>Golden State started 5 of 27 in front of a raucous, sellout crowd. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced Tuesday that the arena and Valkyries will host the 2027 All-Star Game.<\/p>\n<p>The Valkyries (25-10) had their six-game winning streak snapped with just their second loss in 17 games. They clinched a playoff berth with Monday\u2019s 78-70 win over Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>Golden State shot 4 for 17 in the first quarter, missing five of its six 3-point attempts, then began 1 of 12 to start the second as Minnesota jumped to a 35-18 lead and opened the second quarter with a 7-0 burst on the way to a 41-26 halftime advantage.<\/p>\n<p>The Valkyries typically find their offensive rhythm from their defense, but never got in sync on either end. They shot 2 of 14 from deep in the first half and 7 for 37 overall &#8212; 1 for 7 by leading scorer Gabby Williams, who was held to 10 points on 4-for-15 shooting.<\/p>\n<p>UP NEXT<\/p>\n<p>Lynx: At Washington on Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>Valkyries: Visit Chicago on Friday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MN State Sports Minnesota Lynx guard Olivia Miles, left, drives to the basket against Golden State Valkyries guard&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-865961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}