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The Sky (16-22) routed Indiana on Tuesday for
their third win in the last four games. Coupled with Los Angeles
dropping a 90-76 decision on Tuesday to Connecticut -- the
Sparks' fourth loss in their last five games -- Chicago controls
its fate for the postseason over the final weekend.
The Sky closed out a 3-1 series win over Los Angeles with a
76-75 win on Aug. 29.
"That's great for us," Courtney Williams said of moving into the
driver's seat for a playoff spot. "But I think our focus was
just on winning this game. We can't control what other teams do,
but we can control what we do."
Williams -- who shot 7 of 11 from the floor en route to 17
points and grabbed eight rebounds in Tuesday's win -- leads
Chicago on Friday against a Minnesota team already locked into
the playoffs.
The Lynx (19-19) clinched a berth with an 86-73 win against
Phoenix on Sunday. Kayla McBride scored 23 points in the win,
Minnesota's second straight, and Napheesa Collier went for 22
points and 16 points.
The double-double was Collier's 11th for the campaign. She fell
one rebound shy of a double-double the last time the Lynx saw
Chicago -- an 88-79 Lynx win on Aug. 8 -- but scored 29 points.
The Minnesota victory last month avenged a 77-66 loss to the Sky
in both teams' season opener on May 19, the first defeat in an
0-6 start to the season for the Lynx.
"There's not a lot of people (who thought) we'd be a playoff
team, let alone do it after we were 0-6," Minnesota coach Cheryl
Reeve said after the postseason-clinching victory over Phoenix.
Minnesota is just the second team in league history to reach the
playoffs after an 0-6 start, joining the 2015 Sparks (started
0-7).
Chicago finishes the season Sunday at Connecticut, while
Minnesota closes it out the same day at Indiana.
--Field Level Media
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