{"id":199787,"date":"2025-09-19T09:35:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T09:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/199787\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T09:35:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T09:35:21","slug":"lynx-secure-semifinal-spot-with-last-minute-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/199787\/","title":{"rendered":"Lynx Secure Semifinal Spot With Last-Minute Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MINNEAPOLIS (<a href=\"https:\/\/wjon.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">WJON News<\/a>) &#8212;\u00a0The Minnesota Lynx had to overcome a double-digit deficit in the second half Wednesday night, but they have advanced to the semi-finals of the WNBA playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>The Minnesota Lynx scored a 75-74 comeback win over the Valkyries last night in San Jose. The Lynx rallied back from a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter to sweep Golden State in the best-of-three, first-round playoff series. Napheesa Collier had a game-high 24 points, Kayla McBride added 18, and Bridget Carlton hit four three-pointers for 12 points.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/attachment-wjonam-alexacard-big.jpg\" alt=\"AM 1240 WJON logo\"\/><\/p>\n<p>They will play either the #4 seed Phoenix Mercury or the #5-seeded New York Liberty.<\/p>\n<p>Mitchell Hansen of St. Cloud is the host of the podcast <a href=\"https:\/\/hitting-the-hardwood.mailchimpsites.com\/podcast\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Hitting the Hardwood.<\/a> He says he thinks Phoenix could be the tougher matchup for the Lynx.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to those two teams specifically, I&#8217;m a little bit more worried about Phoenix.\u00a0 Phoenix is playing really well, and the Lynx haven&#8217;t played the Mercury at full strength this year.<\/p>\n<p>The Liberty are playing a bit banged up, including their star Brianna Stewart, who suffered a knee injury in game one of their series. The third and final game of that series is Friday night in Phoenix.<\/p>\n<p>New York beat Minnesota in the fifth and deciding game of the WNBA finals last season.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"next-post cto\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HittingtheHardwood\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Hitting The Hardwood Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hansen says whichever team advances will have a short turnaround to recover.<\/p>\n<p>That game three will be two nights before game one of the semi-finals on Sunday, and Minnesota gets to go back home, they get to rest, they get to practice in their own facility, sleep in their own beds.<\/p>\n<p>The first game of the semi-finals is on Sunday in Minneapolis. As the #1 seed in the tournament, the Lynx have homecourt advantage throughout the postseason.<\/p>\n<p>The other two first-round series are also tied at one game apiece.<br \/>#2 Las Vegas versus #7 Seattle<br \/>#3 Atlanta versus #6 Indiana<br \/>They will both play game three of their series on Thursday night.<\/p>\n<p>Hanson is on the News @ Noon Show on WJON at 12:20 p.m. every Thursday as long as the Minnesota Lynx stay alive in the WNBA playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>Memorable Minnesota Sports Homecomings\/Reunions <\/p>\n<p>Memorable Minnesota Sports Homecomings\/Reunions\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"photogallery-credit\">Gallery Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/search\/2\/image?agreements=pa%3A212225%2Ced%3A5129&amp;family=editorial&amp;phrase=ricky%20rubio%20timberwolves&amp;sort=newest&amp;phraseprocessing=excludenaturallanguage\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS (WJON News) &#8212;\u00a0The Minnesota Lynx had to overcome a double-digit deficit in the second half Wednesday night,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5118],"tags":[15446,5,161,38,5280,9644,4,43,33847,162],"class_list":{"0":"post-199787","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-wild","8":"tag-from-the-wjon-newsroom","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-wild","12":"tag-minnesotawild","13":"tag-newsletter","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-state-regional-news","17":"tag-wild"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115230285739638569","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}