The overarching takeaway from the Minnesota Lynx’s 100-76 victory over the Dallas Wings on Tuesday was that the Lynx are playing better basketball than anyone in the WNBA. It wasn’t intended to be a referendum on the 2026 WNBA Draft, just an example of the league’s best defense shutting off the water of the league’s best offense, earning a key Commissioner’s Cup win in the process.
But with No. 1 pick Azzi Fudd and No. 2 pick Olivia Miles matched up from the opening tip, it was hard not to think of the implications of the Wings’ draft day decision to choose Fudd and pass on Miles. While Fudd has slotted in as a hyper-efficient role player in Dallas, Minnesota landed an instant superstar.
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“She’s special,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said postgame about Miles. “We’ve had, obviously, good teams, legendary teams, but it’s a different time now. And there’s an awareness — I’m hearing from people talking about our team, obviously talking about the rookie — that is palpable.”
Miles ended the night with 24 points, six assists and seven rebounds. In their first pro matchup starting for their respective teams, Miles seemingly delighted in going at Fudd early and often. The Lynx guard forced a tie-up on Fudd two minutes into the game and immediately followed that with a drive past her Dallas counterpart. She added another block on Fudd later in the quarter.
“I love the matchups, Dallas has great guards,” Miles said after the game. “It’s always fun to play against someone who’s in your class and we’ve been competing since we were young.”
Miles, the former TCU transfer star from Notre Dame, kept putting Fudd, a former UConn national champ, in screening actions. Some led to drives for Miles, and she finished shooting 6 of 7 inside the arc. Miles also had six assists when the defense committed and she was able to find an open teammate. She also found time to dance with Fudd, hitting a 3-pointer in her eyes off to put Minnesota up 25 late in the first half.
Credit to Fudd — unlike Miles, she had to defend the opposing team’s best perimeter player, and the ball wasn’t put in Fudd’s hands as often on offense. Fudd had to work on Miles in the halfcourt and still had energy to make impact defensive plays in transition, even if the Wings rookie didn’t hit her first basket until the third quarter.
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Still, her 6 points paled in comparison to Miles’ output, and it illuminated the larger gap between Dallas and Minnesota. The Lynx are now 10-2, only 2 1/2 games ahead of the Wings, but they have more than tripled Dallas’ point differential (plus-12.9 to 3.7). And there seemed to be a play-making deficit for the Wings without Odyssey Sims (ankle injury) available off the bench, one that Miles easily would have addressed.
“(Fudd)’s a great player, she deserved to go No. 1,” Miles said postgame. “She’s a brilliant shooter, one of the best we’ve ever seen in the game, but obviously, against any team, I love to compete.”
There will be no do-overs, and the season is only a quarter through. There is no denying Miles’ capabilities, leading the best team in the WNBA to comfortable wins against the rest of the league’s elite teams.
The Lynx have benefited from draft luck before, most recently in 2019 when Napheesa Collier fell to No. 6 out of UConn. Minnesota and Reeve are always ready to capitalize on what is available to them, and they’ve seemingly done so yet again with Miles, giving her the keys to another contending Lynx group.
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This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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