{"id":706692,"date":"2026-06-16T03:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T03:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/706692\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T03:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T03:33:10","slug":"natasha-howard-nia-coffey-star-as-lynx-pound-portland-twin-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/706692\/","title":{"rendered":"Natasha Howard, Nia Coffey star as Lynx pound Portland \u2013 Twin Cities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MINNEAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 Natasha Howard had 18 points to lead seven players in double-figure scoring for the Minnesota Lynx in a 107-74 victory over the Portland Fire on Monday, fueled by 26 points off 22 turnovers.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Olivia Miles of the Lynx dribbles the ball against Sarah Ashlee Barker (3) and Megan Gustafson of the Portland Fire in Monday's game at Target Center. (Photo by David Berding\/Getty Images)\" width=\"4630\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/STP-Z-LYNX-MILES-0616.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"12799463\" \/>Olivia Miles of the Lynx dribbles the ball against Sarah Ashlee Barker (3) and Megan Gustafson of the Portland Fire in Monday&#8217;s game at Target Center. (Photo by David Berding\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Nia Coffey contributed 15 points, five rebounds, three steals and three blocks in her best all-around performance of her debut season with her hometown team as the Lynx (11-3) roared back from their loss at Las Vegas on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Coffey sank all three of her 3-point tries in a 35-point first quarter that matched the team\u2019s season high in any frame, and the Lynx built a 27-point lead by the middle of the third quarter.<\/p>\n<p>Minnesota improved to 5-1 in the round-robin schedule for the WNBA Commissioner\u2019s Cup, but Las Vegas needed only to beat Dallas on Monday or Phoenix on Wednesday to secure the Western Conference spot. New York clinched the Eastern Conference\u2019s berth on June 14, with the championship game set for June 30.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"Courtney Williams of the Lynx passes the ball against Carla Leite of the Portland Fire in Monday's game at Target Center. (Photo by David Berding\/Getty Images)\" width=\"5112\" data- src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/STP-Z-LYNX-COURT-0616.jpg\" data-attachment-id=\"12799462\" \/>Courtney Williams of the Lynx passes the ball against Carla Leite of the Portland Fire in Monday&#8217;s game at Target Center. (Photo by David Berding\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>The first trip to Minnesota for the WNBA\u2019s latest expansion franchise \u2014 the rebooted Fire entered the league this year along with the Toronto Tempo \u2014 meant a reunion at Target Center for forward Bridget Carleton.<\/p>\n<p>Carleton, the first pick in the expansion draft who spent the previous seven seasons with the Lynx, was honored during a break in the action along with Fire assistant coach Sylvia Fowles, who won two championships and the 2017 WNBA MVP award in Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p>Carleton\u2019s return was a rough one. She missed eight of nine shots from the floor and finished with just three points and a minus-31 rating in 26 minutes for the Fire (7-9).<\/p>\n<p>Minnesota plays at Los Angeles on Wednesday, the last night of scheduled Commissioner\u2019s Cup games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 Natasha Howard had 18 points to lead seven players in double-figure scoring for the Minnesota&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[1077,99,434],"class_list":["post-706692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-minnesota-lynx","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}