Top cats: Lynx fans stoked for a championship as WNBA playoffs near
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Connie Howe knows hoops. She has the rings to prove it — and she’s all in this season on the Minnesota Lynx and their WNBA championship hopes.
A women’s basketball trailblazer, Howe turned up Tuesday night at A Bar of Their Own in Minneapolis to watch a Lynx game with her rugby friends and show off her rings from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
“I love Olivia Miles. I can read her mind, like I can just see her, and I can just see her brain working,” Howe said of the Lynx All-Star rookie point guard that fans hope will be the difference-maker in winning it all this season.
The team ends the regular season Thursday night against the Indiana Fever then starts the playoffs Sunday at home against the New York Liberty. While fans worry about Miles’ calf injury, they are hyped for a playoff run. Nearly 16,000 showed up at Target Center for last Friday’s game against the Liberty. Sunday’s first playoff game in Minneapolis is likely to be loud.
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Miles and her health were major topics of conversation on Tuesday at A Bar of Their Own, which opened on its usual day off so fans could watch the Lynx play the Indiana Fever. The place was packed.
“I am obsessed with her,” said Shruthi Chandra of St. Paul as she watched the game with friends sporting a Miles jersey.
“I wanted to draft her when we, at the very beginning, when everyone was like, ‘Let’s draft (UCLA center) Lauren Betts. Let’s draft whatever,’ and I was like, ‘no, I want Olivia Miles very badly,’” Chandra said. “I felt so validated when we drafted her, and especially when she played so freaking well. I think she's excellent. I think she's going to be one of the best point guards in the league."
Howe, who played point guard, was equally impressed with Miles.
“As soon as she gets the ball, she has the whole court analyzed,” said Howe, who was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012 as part of the All American Red Heads, a women’s team that barnstormed the country playing men’s teams. She also played for the Minnesota Fillies, a team that played the Women's Professional Basketball League of the late 1970s and early ‘80s.
Miles, she added, “knows what play is going to work, and then she executes. And talk about fearless. She's fearless."
Chandra and other fans remain concerned about whether Miles’ calf injury will hamper her in the playoffs. Tuesday night’s game wasn’t great. Miles didn’t play and coach Cheryl Reeve benched the Lynx starters at halftime. The game ended with the Fever winning 96-77.
"I was feeling a lot better like two weeks ago,” Chandra confessed. Still she’s hopeful Reeve can “beat some offense back into them.”
Where, when and how to watch WNBA playoffs
The Lynx clinched the top seed due to Golden State Valkyries loss to the Portland Fire.
Decided late Wednesday, the Lynx will face No. 8 seed New York Liberty in the first round of playoffs, a rematch of the 2024 championship run that left the Lynx as runner-ups to their fifth title. The first game will be Sunday at Target Center.
The exact time and broadcast channel to stream the game is yet to be determined after Thursday’s regular season finales. It will be added to this story once it is announced.
The Lynx finish the regular season at 7 p.m. Thursday against the Indiana Fever at Target Center. Watch the game on USA Network or, for those local, stream it via Victory+.
