UNCASVILLE, Conn. – Despite losing Game 1 of the WNBA semifinals, Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said she was optimistic about her team’s chances of winning the series. The best player, Napheesa Collier, was inefficient offensively and the Connecticut Sun shot better than 40% from 3.

Neither would likely repeat itself throughout the series.

“There was definitely a level of confidence after Game 1,” Reeve said. “This group will bounce back. They always do.”

Five days later, the Lynx now have a 2-1 series lead after winning 90-81 at home against the Sun on Friday night. Game 4 is Sunday here at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Collier finished with 26 points and 11 rebounds and shot 11-for-19 from the field. She became the first player in Lynx history to produce multiple 25-point, 10-rebound performances in the playoffs.

After a record-setting series against the Phoenix Mercury in which she scored 80 points in two games, the Sun was able to limit Collier’s production in Games 1 and 2 of the semifinals. She scored just 28 points in the two games, including nine points on 3-for-14 shooting in Game 2.

But getting Collier on the road early was clearly part of the Lynx’s plan for Friday.

“There was no one more frustrated than Phee over the last few games,” Reeve said.

Collier got on the board on the Lynx’s third possession and hit a turnaround jumper over Alyssa Thomas a few possessions later. After a pump-fake layup and a turnaround jumper, she had eight points in the first six minutes.

Collier shot 4-for-14 with Thomas, her top defender in Games 1 and 2; she went 5-for-5 against Thomas in the first half on Friday. It set the tone for the Lynx offense.

“Just taking my time and knowing that I did everything I could. Those are shots that I normally take,” she said. “Everyone has a bad night. I’ve tried to contribute in other ways to help the team. And I know they’re going to fall. They’re shots I make a thousand times… It’s the law of averages. Sometimes do you have a But I knew I had to participate; it is the play-offs that you have to play with an aggressive attitude, without remembering what happened the game before, but staying in the present moment.’

The Sun had no answer for the Lynx’s pick-and-roll offense involving Collier and Courtney Williams. They tried to hedge aggressively, they tried to trap the ball and get it out of Williams’ hands, they tried to switch – and none of it worked. According to ESPN Research, Minnesota went 5-for-5 from the floor in the first half as the Sun tried to beat Williams with two defenders.

When the momentum started to swing towards Connecticut or the Lynx desperately needed a basket, they just went right back to their ball screen offense.

After a deep 3 from DeWanna Bonner cut the Lynx lead to three early in the second quarter, Collier and Williams came back into the game and immediately called ball screens on consecutive possessions. The first resulted in a left-handed layup from Collier and the second ended with Collier kicking the ball to Kayla McBride in the corner for a three-pointer while drawing a foul to push the lead back to nine.

After the Sun got back within nine in the fourth quarter, Williams saw Collier roll to the basket again to extend the lead. With under three minutes left, Collier stepped up and set a screen for Williams, the Sun switched and ended up with a smaller defender on Collier – who received the ball in the paint and was ready to cut the gap to 10 points.

“They’re making adjustments, and I think we’re prepared for their adjustments,” Williams said. “Obviously, we know they’re going to go back to the drawing board and make more adjustments. And we’re going to do that. I think we just have to trust what we’re doing. My teammates trust, knowing that if I If I the trap is in place, I can let it go. They are hedging hard, they are going down, but we know how to trust each other and how to adapt when they treat us differently.”

Connecticut, which had the league’s best defense in the regular season — based on defensive efficiency and points per game — was picked apart like very few teams had in the regular season. Minnesota shot better than 59% in the first half; according to ESPN Research; that was the second-best shooting performance by any team against the Sun in a first half this season.

Opponents shot just 43.1% against the Sun during the regular season, but Minnesota shot better than 57% for the game. It was also only the second time all season that a team scored 90 points in the regular season against the Sun.

“They’re a good team, they spread the floor, they’re really balanced, but I felt like it was more on us,” Sun coach Stephanie White said. “I felt like we were soft no matter what we did. I felt like we let them go where they wanted to go. We didn’t put up much resistance. We really let them move the ball on the perimeter. There has to be a mentality being disruptive.”

Meanwhile, Sun top scorer Marina Mabrey struggled to get into the rhythm. After averaging 17.5 points in two games in the series, she shot 6-for-20 (1-for-11 from 3) as the Lynx made a point of limiting her space at the catch. Bridget Carleton and McBride rarely allowed Mabrey to get an opening, and when she did, her shots didn’t fall. She missed all six of her open three-point attempts after going 8-for-12 on clean looks in the first two games.

“I thought Mabrey was fine,” Reeve said. “She’s a shot maker. I thought she had some shots that she just didn’t make. I’m trying not to give her the same opportunities in our next game … I didn’t think it was necessarily something we did.”

A promising sign for the Sun was the play of Brionna Jones, who was a complete non-factor in the first two games of the series and sat out the entire fourth quarter of Game 2. She had nine points in the first half on Friday and then scored four more. early in the third quarter, while also providing four assists in the first 25 minutes. Jones finished the regular season with 17 or more points in seven of the team’s final nine games, but averaged just 5.0 points through four playoff games. Friday’s performance looked to be a return to her September form.

“I think it was just my mentality that came out in this game. I know I haven’t been active offensively in the last two games,” Jones said. “My teammates found me and made me look easy.”

Unfortunately for the Sun, she picked up her fourth foul on an illegal screen with 4:22 left in the third quarter after they turned the momentum of the game around. Minnesota responded with an 11-5 run to give themselves some breathing room entering the final period.

Bonner also had 16 points for the Sun, moving past Candace Parker (1,149) into second place on the WNBA’s playoff scoring list. Bonner now has 1,159 points, behind only Diana Taurasi (1,455).

With the win, Minnesota moved one step closer to a return to the WNBA Finals, a stage the Lynx reached in six of seven seasons from 2011 to 2017, resulting in four championships. But they haven’t been to the Final since that last title in 2017.

After being projected as a borderline playoff team in preseason, they are now just 40 minutes away from a shot at the championship.

“You keep underestimating us and we’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing,” Collier said. “We come in and punch teams in the face. We’ve proven who we are all season and we have so much belief in ourselves. We know what we’re capable of and that’s what we try to go out and show every game .” night.”