Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- A key player for the league's top team will miss tonight's matchup against the league's worst team.
- The injury is minor but comes at a crucial point in the season as the team tries to build its playoff lead.
- The coaching staff has multiple options to adjust the rotation and will rely on depth to maintain their dominant pace.
The Minnesota Lynx have gotten off to a magical start to the 2026 WNBA season. Even without star forward Napheesa Collier, who is recovering from offseason ankle surgery, they have the best record in the league and the best scoring differential, nearly twice as high as the next-best team. The key to their red-hot start has been rookie point guard, Olivia Miles, the No. 2 pick in the WNBA Draft.
However, they'll be without Miles tonight as they take on the last-place Connecticut Sun, looking to pick up another win and pad their lead in the WNBA standings.
Olivia Miles is out for tonight's game against the Connecticut Sun
Miles joins Collier and Emma Checova listed as out on the official injury report. Dorka Juhasz is listed as probable. Miles is dealing with a calf strain sustained this weekend against the Liberty, and this will be her first missed game of the season.
So far this season, Miles is averaging 18.5 points, 5.7 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game, shooting better than 50 percent from the field. She may have already locked up the Rookie of the Year race — some sportsbooks have taken her odds off the board, no longer accepting wagers on her — and catapulted herself into the MVP race. If she pulls that off, she would join Candace Parker as the only rookies in WNBA history to MVP and ROY.
The good news for the Lynx is that her injury is not expected to keep her out of the lineup for long, and tonight's matchup is against the worst team in the league. Even without Miles, their rotation is deep enough that they have a good chance of taking the win.
Projected Lynx starting lineup without Olivia Miles
STARTER | POSITION | BENCH |
|---|---|---|
Courtney Williams | PG | Maya Caldwell |
Kayla McBride | SG | Antonia Delaere |
Nia Coffey | SF | Liatu King |
Anastasiia Kosu | PF | - |
Natasha Howard | C | Dorka Juhász |
The Lynx play a fairly small rotation anyway and Miles is usually featuring in a three-guard lineup with Courtney Williams and Kayla McBride. Williams has plenty of experience as a primary ball-handler so she simply slides into that role and Anastasiia Kosu could slide into the starting lineup in the frontcourt. The other option would be Caldwell or Delaere taking Miles spot in the backcourt and continuing to roll with that three-guard set up.
Regardless of the final rotation, the plan is going to be the same — push the pace, spread the floor, breakdown the defense with dribble penetration and leverage their speed and shooting. While Williams will pick up some playmaking responsibilities, Howard could also be in for a big game. She's been averaging 18.2 points and 8.2 rebounds over the past 10 games, doing a ton of damage in transition and on the offensive glass. She should be able to feast against the Sun, who are 10th in the league in both defensive rebound percentage and turnover percentage.
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