The Minnesota Lynx must beat the Connecticut Sun and get some help in order to extend the illustrious career of center Sylvia Fowles.
An eight-time All-Star and former league MVP, Fowles will play her final regular season game on Sunday afternoon against the Sun in Uncasville, Conn. A win by the Lynx would be followed by some scoreboard watching.
Minnesota (14-21) is jockeying with three other teams for the seventh and eighth seeds in the playoffs and hoping to avoid missing the postseason for the first time since 2010.
To get the seventh seed, the Lynx need a win in conjunction with losses by New York and Phoenix. Minnesota will be the eighth seed if it wins and if New York or Phoenix loses.
The Lynx are in this situation because of what unfolded Friday when they endured a 96-69 rout at the hands of the Seattle Storm in their home finale. While Fowles posted 13 points and 12 rebounds for her record-extending 192nd career double-double, Minnesota trailed by 20 after one quarter, shot 36.5 percent and allowed Seattle to shoot 52.8 percent.
"We looked slow," Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said. "Slow to rotations. We didn't look confident. I'm disappointed with our overall lack of collective will. But we've talked about that before with this team."
"We'll get on the plane, get there and we go hooping with the playoffs on the line," Reeve added. "We'll see what we can do."
Connecticut (24-11) is assured of the third seed in the postseason and won for the eighth time in 10 games when it cruised to a 93-69 rout of the host Los Angeles Sparks on Thursday.
Alyssa Thomas had 18 points, nine rebounds and five assists and Jonquel Jones had 17 points and eight rebounds as the Sun shot 50 percent and pulled away in the second half.
The Sun own a pair of wins against the Lynx when it swept a two-game series at Minnesota on July 22-24. Thomas had a triple-double in an 94-84 win in the first meeting and Natisha Hiedeman had 19 points in the 86-79 win in the second contest.
Connecticut signed Odyssey Sims for the remainder of the season earlier this week.
"She's been tremendous on-ball defensively," Sun coach Curt Miller said. "For someone who doesn't know the playbook yet and doesn't know all our schemes yet, I'm really pleased with how Odyssey is playing."
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