Lynx edge the Sun 87-83 in first of two meetings at Mohegan Sun
Jul. 30—MOHEGAN — It's easy to get caught up being a spectator when DeWanna Bonner and Alyssa Thomas are on the floor making history for the Connecticut Sun.
On Sunday, Bonner became the first player to score 30-or-more points for the Sun in back-to-back games and Thomas recorded her fourth triple-double of the season and the sixth regular-season triple-double of her career, more than any player in WNBA history.
But the Sun fell 87-83 to the Minnesota Lynx before 8,275 at Mohegan Sun Arena, as the Lynx continued their role as the league's spoiler and the Connecticut players other than Bonner and Thomas spent too much time spectating.
"I think it's natural for athletes and, quite honestly for human beings, when things aren't going your way, you get a little tunnel-vision," Sun head coach Stephanie White said.
"When our guards have it and we hold it and we wait for AT (Thomas) to come set a screen for us and then we spray it and then we wait for AT to come set a screen for us. Then we spray it, then we wait for AT to come set a screen for us. When we're at our best, that's not happening. When we're at our best, the ball's just moving and popping."
The Sun, who trailed by as many as nine late in the third quarter, pulled within one on a layup by Bonner with 12.6 seconds remaining, cutting the Lynx lead to 84-83.
Connecticut stopped the clock by fouling Kayla McBride with 11.7 remaining and McBride made one of two from the line for a two-point lead. The Sun called a timeout with 11.3 seconds left, down 85-83.
Bonner missed a 3-point attempt with 1.8 seconds to play, with a block credited to Minnesota rookie Dorka Juhasz, a recent UConn grad, on the play.
Jessica Shepard secured the defensive rebound for Minnesota (13-13), which has now beaten Eastern Conference frontrunners New York and Connecticut in succession despite missing leading scorer Napheesa Collier (right ankle).
Bonner finished with 31 points for the Sun (18-7), one game after a 32-point effort in a win at Dallas, and Thomas had 17 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists. DiJonai Carrington added 11 points.
McBride scored 19 for Minnesota, leading five players in double figures, and Shepard had 12 points and 14 rebounds. Juhasz, in her return to Connecticut, had 11 points and six rebounds.
"I don't know if I got (much of it), but I just felt like my fingertips touched it," said Juhasz of the final block. "I definitely wanted to stay down ... DB had some moves on me (earlier in the game). I was thinking she was going to go to the basket, try to get fouled, you know?
"Then once she got back into that shooting motion, I was like 'This is my time.' She's a great player. It could have been a little bit further away and it might be a 3 that she makes."
White, the Sun coach, said the play was designed to go for two points to tie the game or perhaps for a player to draw a foul and go to the line. Connecticut was 24-for-27 from the foul line.
"That was tough," said Bonner, who is eighth on the WNBA's all-time scoring list in her 14th season, recently selected as an All-Star for the fifth time.
"That one's going to stick with me for a long time. I think I waited a little bit too late trying to wait for the play to develop and it didn't. She got a hand on it; her fingertips barely got it. I should have been a little bit more aggressive but I learned from it. I'd rather have that now than later."
The Sun had won three straight but Minnesota shot 63.3% in the first half Sunday to take a 48-44 lead. The teams traded leads 14 times.
Connecticut's last lead came on a drive by Bonner with 5:11 to play, giving the Sun a 54-52 edge. Minnesota took the lead for good on a 3-pointer by McBride to make it 59-56 and McBride followed that with another from long range, prompting a Sun timeout.
The Lynx led 68-62 after three quarters following a buzzer-beating 3 by Connecticut's Natisha Hiedeman.
Connecticut and Minnesota will play again at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Mohegan Sun.
"They came out in the first half and outplayed us," Bonner said. "They were shooting (63%) in the first half, something like that, so they had ultimate confidence from the beginning of the game. I think that's kind of on us.
"We didn't play our best basketball from the opening tip," White said. "We played hard but we didn't play smart today and we gotta play smarter basketball in this league."
