The Minnesota Lynx and Las Vegas Aces are back on the floor Saturday night, and the rematch lands with more weight than a routine regular-season game. Minnesota won by 11 points last Saturday, a result that followed a season split in which Las Vegas had beaten the Lynx without Napheesa Collier.
That is why Lynx Vs Aces is drawing attention again now. Minnesota is No. 1 in the WNBA and Las Vegas is No. 3, and the Aces were set as a slight underdog at home even after A’ja Wilson and the Aces picked up back-to-back wins over Washington earlier in the week. The setup makes this feel less like a midseason stop and more like a preview of what could matter later.
Olivia Miles has been part of why the matchup has stayed tight. She scored 29 points on 20 shots in a loss to Las Vegas on June 13, then followed with 26 points on 11-of-23 shooting in Minnesota’s win last Saturday. She is averaging 19.8 points per game overall while shooting 49.6 percent from the field and 40.2 percent from 3, numbers that show how often she has been forcing defenses to choose between living with her shot or sending help.
The longer view is even sharper. Since she dropped 28 points against Golden State on June 4, Miles has averaged 21.3 points over 24 games, hit 49.6 percent from the field and 44.7 percent from 3, and finished with 20 or more points 15 times. That run gives Minnesota another scoring layer behind Collier, who missed the first half of the season recovering from offseason ankle surgery and was back in the lineup for the last meeting.
That is the part that keeps the series from feeling settled. Las Vegas already proved it could beat Minnesota without Collier, but Minnesota answered once she returned, and the next meeting is now a test of whether the Aces can turn home court into a correction. Saturday night does not settle the WNBA race, but it can tell a lot about which of these teams is better built for the kind of series both expect to play in later.
