{"id":908591,"date":"2026-09-25T02:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T02:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/908591\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T02:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T02:28:10","slug":"lynx-flex-their-top-seed-muscle-without-miles-push-clark-and-the-fever-to-6th-for-the-wnba-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/908591\/","title":{"rendered":"Lynx flex their top-seed muscle without Miles, push Clark and the Fever to 6th for the WNBA playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<br class=\"clr\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"posted\">By Canadian Press on September 24, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/31fa9fbe0d4a626a7803e352dd7b59bcf8569c2ddf67cec6f474e4303a973278-400x267.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\"  \/>Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) passes the ballaround Minnesota Lynx forward Natasha Howard, right, during the first half of a WNBA basketball game, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo\/Ellen Schmidt)<\/p>\n<p>MINNEAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 Kayla McBride scored 22 points on 6-for-10 shooting from 3-point range as the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx closed the regular season by cruising to an 86-66 victory Thursday night that pushed the Indiana Fever into sixth place entering the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/wnba-playoff-picture-baac15a2ee228bbce9c172db00844c13\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WNBA playoffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Natasha Howard had 21 points and Courtney Williams added nine points, seven rebounds and 10 assists for the Lynx, who played without star point guard Olivia Miles for a second straight game due to a left calf injury. The Lynx snapped back from a <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/indiana-fever-minnesota-lynx-score-d3f887c364ae21e772b4c31a100d4be5\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">blowout loss<\/a> to the Fever on the road two days ago.<\/p>\n<p>Kelsey Mitchell had a team-leading 10 points and Caitlin Clark scored a season-low two points on 1-for-12 shooting as the Fever fell behind 25-4 late in the first quarter and never recovered.<\/p>\n<p>Minnesota (33-11), which had already secured the No. 1 seed for the second consecutive year, will face New York in a best-of-three first-round matchup starting Sunday. The Liberty beat the Lynx in seven games in the WNBA Finals in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Indiana (28-16) lost the season series tiebreaker in defeat at home to Washington four days ago, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/sky-mystics-score-a672efd7f25f797901e2d627352c01b3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mystics passed the Fever for fifth by beating Chicago<\/a> earlier Thursday. Indiana had to wait until the last possible hour of the regular season to find out its first-round opponent, either Golden State or Las Vegas pending their results on the West Coast.<\/p>\n<p>After beating the Lynx 96-77 in Indianapolis, the Fever squandered that momentum with a lifeless performance including a season low in points and field goal percentage.<\/p>\n<p>The Fever lost backup guard Ty Harris to a left ankle injury in the third quarter after she landed awkwardly after a drive to the basket. Harris grabbed her leg and was down on the floor for several minutes before being carried off the court to the locker room.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/xn--see%20aps%20full%20wnba%20coverage%20here-bm1z\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">See AP\u2019s full WNBA coverage here<\/a>\n              <\/p>\n<p>Dave Campbell, The Associated Press<\/p>\n<p>13<br \/> -12\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<br class=\"clr\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Canadian Press on September 24, 2026. Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) passes the ballaround Minnesota Lynx&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":908592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-908591","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\/908591","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=908591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/908591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=908591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=908591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=908591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}