The Minnesota Lynx are taking a 10-game winning streak, the longest in the WNBA this season, into their Thursday night game against the Los Angeles Sparks (9 p.m. ET, Prime Video).
During their streak of 10 wins, Minnesota already notched a win over the Sparks, which was win No. 4 in this stretch. That was the game Olivia Miles left early with an ankle injury scare, yet Kayla McBride stepped up, with her 24 points steering Minnesota to the nine-point win.
After winning over LA, Minnesota continued to enjoy a softer stretch of opponents before and after the All-Star break, with five-straight games against the Portland Fire, Seattle Storm and Toronto Tempo.
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On Sunday, the Lynx got their first significant test in awhile, facing an Indiana Fever team that, likewise benefitting from a favorable schedule stretch, had won five games in a row.
Despite a season-high 37 points from Kelsey Mitchell, the combined scoring punch of Miles and Courtney Williams, plus some clutch buckets from Napheesa Collier, secured the double-digit winning streak for Minnesota.
Is win No. 11 in a row on the way on Thursday? And if the Lynx beat the Sparks, how much longer can they go?
The potentially scary thing is one could argue that the Lynx actually haven’t been playing their best basketball during their streak.
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To be clear, the Lynx offense has been cooking, with an offensive rating of 120.2 during their winning streak. For the season, Minnesota’s offensive rating is 113.8, which ranks third in the league. Scintillating 3-point shooting is driving much of Minnesota’s point production. As a team, the Lynx are drilling almost 44 percent of their triples, giving them 11 made 3-pointers, or 33 points from behind the arc, per game. For the season, the Lynx are still the best 3-point shooting team in the league, although their team-wide percentage of 39.1 percent and 8.9 3s per game is not at the absurd level they’ve been reaching of late.
It certainly looks like Napheesa Collier took advantage of her extended injury absence to work on her 3-ball, as she’s shooting 43.8 percent from deep in her four games played. While her 3-pointer was uncharacteristically off to begin the season, McBride is making almost four 3s per game at a nearly 49-percent clip during the winning streak. Miles likewise is the midst of the best 3-point shooting stretch of her rookie season, nailing 45.5 percent of her 3s over the last 10 games.
Considering the Lynx can’t miss, how are they NOT playing their best ball at the moment?
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Well, if the offense is this electric, Minnesota’s overall metrics during their streak should probably be better.
Over their last 10 games, the Lynx are outscoring opponents by 9.2 points per game, the best mark in the league over that span. But, it’s slightly below their season-long point differential of +9.4 points per game.
That difference, while slim, suggests that Minnesota’s shooting heater has been enough to drive their winning streak, but that it also might be masking some defensive slippage.
Whereas the Lynx’s offensive rating has improved by almost seven points as they have won 10 games in a row, their defensive rating has trended the wrong direction by about seven points, with their season-long defensive rating of 102.7, which ranks second in the league, spiking to 109.4.
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So, might Minnesota’s winning streak, in fact, be a bad thing?
Without losses, it’s hard to learn defensive lessons. Will it take until the 3s stop falling and the losses start coming for the Lynx to begin to address their issues on the defensive side of the ball?
That would be surprising. This is a team coached by Cheryl Reeve, who, I’m sure, has expressed her irritation at her team’s recent defensive shortcomings. Earlier this season, Reeve candidly suggested most WNBA teams are more focused on offense than defense, a pronouncement that, at least at the time, implied her team was different.
In an indication that her team was not meeting her expectations, Reeve spoke about her squad’s defensive slide before the All-Star break, saying after they eked out a win over the Seattle Storm on July 20:
Right now we’re not good enough defensively. We’re outscoring people, and we’ll take those wins when we can get them. But that’s not a recipe for long-term success.
In the following game, a rematch with the Storm and Collier’s season debut, the Minnesota defense looked more like the early-season version of themselves, holding Seattle to 76 points on barely 40 percent shooting, something they did with regularity to begin the 2026 season.
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In their three games out of the All-Star break, however, opponents have found more shooting comfort against Minnesota, with all three teams making at least 45 percent of their field goals.
What Miles said after that first Seattle game still applies:
The more film you have … teams learn how to exploit our coverages and whatnot. But at the end of the day, and Cheryl always says, it’s not the scheme, it’s just our commitment and level of effort.
And now, it’s time for the Lynx to apply it.
Due to the playoff disappointments experienced in recent seasons, this team, more than any other, should know that postseason readiness and resiliency on both sides of the ball matters a lot more than an August winning streak.
In tonight’s matchup, Minnesota can begin to demonstrate that by shutting down an LA team that, themselves lacking on the defensive end (as they proved by allowing the Chicago Sky to score 34 points in fourth quarter on Wednesday night), favors track meets over scrums.
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Even if another 31-point outburst from Miles, which happened the first time the Lynx played the Sparks, would be more fun, a gritty, ugly affair for win No. 11 in a row might be what the Lynx need.
Do have confidence that the Lynx will tighten up their defense, reminding that they can collect wins—11 in row, 12 in a row, 13 in row and so on—with offense OR defense? Alternatively, are you concerned that the defensive slippage could persist, and prove fatal in the playoffs? Or, maybe all this fretting is a first-world problem for the best team in the W?
Let us know below.
