Lynx clinch spot in playoffs, Vikings ramp up training camp

NINA MOINI: The Minnesota Lynx are the first team in the WNBA to secure a spot in the playoffs this fall, as they beat the Dallas Wings yesterday 103 to 90. Guard Kayla McBride lived up to her nickname "McBuckets."

TV ANNOUNCER: McBride [INAUDIBLE]. A new WNBA three-point record. 10 from the outside in one game.

NINA MOINI: She made 10 three-pointers, you heard it there, breaking the WNBA record for threes in a single game. Joining me to talk about it are our weekly sports contributors, Wally Langfellow, the founder of Minnesota Score Sports Magazine and co-host of the sports talk show 10,000 Takes-- hey, Wally.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Hey. How are you?

NINA MOINI: Great. Thanks. Eric Nelson is the other co-host of that show and the Minnesota Vikings reporter for Odyssey's Gridiron Gameday and SiriusXM. Hey, Eric.

ERIC NELSON: Happy Monday, Nina.

NINA MOINI: Happy Monday. So the Lynx, they've been on top, really, all season. Why do they have an official playoff spot now?

ERIC NELSON: Yeah, simply because they keep winning, Nina. I mean, yesterday, they blew by the Dallas Wings 103 to 90. And, as you just touched on, Kayla McBride was lights out in that Lynx win. Her shooting range was anywhere in the 612 area code-- sinking 10 three-balls? And that is a WNBA single game record. Incredibly impressive.

McBride, who is a five-time all-star and also a four-time EuroLeague champion, finished with a career high 43 points. Now, she's been playing professionally since 2014, went to Notre Dame, was chosen third overall in the first round by the old San Antonio Stars back in the 2014 draft. So what happened yesterday was a seminal moment for Kayla McBride.

By the way, Paige Bueckers, who is from Hopkins High School, plays for Dallas, had 23 points in the loss. Now, the Lynx, you talked about that playoff spot-- they are scorching hot. Their record is 27 and 7. That is the top seed in the WNBA. They've won 12 of 13 games. So, once again they punch a ticket to the playoffs.

Let's not forget on Saturday, Minnesota knocked off Las Vegas on national TV, 98 to 87. Impressive win against the Aces, Nina, because they are the defending WNBA champions and have won three titles in the past four years. Olivia Miles had 26 in that game. Napheesa Collier chipped in with 22.

And I'll tell you what, the Lynx certainly have the look of a team that can win the WNBA championship. Minnesota has won four titles in franchise history, so I'm calling this the drive for five. By the way, their next game is in Oregon Wednesday against the Portland Fire.

NINA MOINI: OK. Wally, let's check in on the Minnesota Vikings ahead of their season. What's happening at training camp?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Well, last night, they had their night practice, which included a scrimmage. And they packed the house. This is where people can go and watch some competition-- not just practice, but it is competition. They had a seven-on-seven situation. They had 11-on-11. That's the good news is that fans got to watch them. I know it was a locally televised as well.

But the bad news is the quarterback situation is still very fuzzy, if you will. JJ McCarthy looked good initially, and then he kind of fizzled out. And then later on, Kyler Murray didn't look good at all. He threw a couple of interceptions, was sacked 3 times. He did complete 10 of 15 passes overall.

But I think that it didn't really clarify that quarterback competition situation much at all. The good news, if you want to flip it to the other side, is that the running game appears to be something that is going to be a strength this year. Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason, both of them playing well. The rookie, Claiborne, played well as well. And the defense looks good under Brian Flores.

So I guess the takeaways right now are we still don't know what's happening with the quarterback situation, although Kyler Murray is getting more of the attention. He's getting more of the snaps. And so it seems like he will be the starter when they play their first preseason game. That's against the Giants in the Meadowlands in New Jersey on Saturday.

He probably will be the starter. And then we'll just have to see what happens after that. It's going to be decided, I would guess, within the next couple of weeks who is going to be the starter when September's opening game against the Packers roll around. But right now, I would probably think it's going to be Kyler Murray. Although, as I said, didn't look very good last night.

NINA MOINI: OK, that's good to know. So the Minnesota Twins weren't far away this weekend. They played the Brewers in Milwaukee. How did that go, Eric?

ERIC NELSON: Not good if you're a Twins fan. The I-94 border battle goes to Milwaukee, Brewers win two out of three-- very close games on Saturday and Sunday. Yesterday went 10 innings. Milwaukee wins it 4 to 3. The Brewers get a walk-off win. Jake Bauers got the game winning RBI single in the 10th inning. And, by the way, the Brewers, let's give a little love to our friends on the other side of the St. Croix River--

NINA MOINI: Sure.

ERIC NELSON: 74 and 44-- Milwaukee has the best record in Major League Baseball. And the star of the day yesterday in Milwaukee was Brewers rookie right fielder Luis Lara. He made two sensational catches in the game. The second glove gem was a run saving grab in the 10th inning. I'll tell you, Lara looked more like a Green Bay Packers linebacker as he ran straight into the fence with reckless abandon, stole an extra base hit from Kody Clemens. It was a remarkable grab.

The Twins now tied for third place in the AL Central with Cleveland. They're 4 games behind the Chicago White Sox. Minnesota is a game and a half behind Texas for the American League's final wild card spot. Tonight, Baltimore at Minnesota. The Orioles and Twins begin a three-game series in Minneapolis. And Thursday, how about this, Nina-- Cornball. The Field of Dreams game will be played in an Iowa cornfield-- yes, the exact same spot in Northeastern Iowa where Kevin Costner starred in the classic Field of Dreams movie back in 1989.

They've had a major renovation and expansion done on the facility-- capacity now 8K, including 4,200 permanent seats. This is just the third Major League Baseball cornball game in Iowa. The other two were 2021 and 2022. So I suspect there will be some Twins fans heading south to see the Twins and Phillies Thursday in the cornfield.

NINA MOINI: Cool. So while the Twins were away, though, Target Field was still full, I'm told. People came out to watch the Savannah Bananas. Have you ever seen them, Wally?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: I've only seen clips on television, to be quite honest. Although, I will say this-- I was out Saturday evening not far from Target Field, and they had it on the televisions in the facility I was in, and it was live on ESPN. So, go figure-- a Savannah Bananas game at Target Field was live on ESPN.

So, no, I haven't seen them in person. But I saw plenty of it on TV. And you said the Target Field was still filled. It's not filled regularly with the Twins.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. Fact check.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Yes. Fact check-- I'm sorry to do that to you, Nina. But truth of the matter is that the Twins have had trouble drawing people. But the Savannah Bananas drew them.

They sold out all three games Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. They played against the Loco Beach Coconuts for those three games, the Savannah Bananas did. And it's basically an entertainment situation.

If you're a baseball traditionalist, this probably isn't for you. There's singing, there's choreographed dancing. It's like the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball. I guess that's the best way to describe this. They did bring out a couple of former Twins, though, to keep fans engaged baseball wise.

NINA MOINI: Cool.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: Joe Mauer threw out the first pitch. How about that? Brian Dozier got some swing, the former Minnesota Twins. They brought out Tony Oliva. I think Trevor May was there, another former Twin. So they know what they're doing as far as appealing to the local crowd. And they did that this past weekend with, as I said, Joe Mauer and Brian Dozier. So it made fans happy. And I'll tell you, I was at a restaurant, little girls were walking in. And they had Savannah banana shirts on.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, why not?

WALLY LANGFELLOW: It wasn't even downtown. I was out in St. Louis Park. So it's crazy.

NINA MOINI: I would actually tune in to ESPN for that.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: I'm sure you would.

NINA MOINI: Thank you both. Have a great week. Appreciate you.

WALLY LANGFELLOW: You too.

ERIC NELSON: See you, Nina.

NINA MOINI: Sports contributors Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson for us.