WELP, missed the boat on the first round, but thankfully Natisha Hiedeman and the Minnesota Lynx advanced.
Mea culpa, everyone.
I completely missed the timing on the end of the WNBA season and such missed out on the timing to get a How To Watch schedule guide up for former Marquette women’s basketball star Natisha Hiedeman and her Minnesota Lynx in the first round of the playoffs. That’s on me!
Thankfully, Hiedeman and company — and mostly I mean Napheesa Collier, we’ll get to it — came through with a 2-0 win over the Phoenix Mercury in the first round, and now they’re in the semifinals. Interestingly, because of how the WNBA playoffs work, Hiedeman and the Lynx are squaring off against the Connecticut Sun, the team that traded Hiedeman to the Lynx last off-season. Weird how that works.
How did we get here at all?
Well, first of all, Minnesota is the #2 seed in the playoffs, finishing the regular season with a record of 30-10. They went 8-2 in their last 10 regular season contests to shove past Connecticut and leave the Sun with the #3 seed at 28-12. The Lynx are led by Napheesa Collier, who averaged just short of a double-double in the regular season at 20.4 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. Natisha Hiedeman is one of three Lynx players who appeared in all 40 games of the regular season, and she came off the bench for all of them after starting all 40 in her final season with Connecticut. Hiedeman averaged 4.9 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game for Minnesota this year, and I think we all know why she wasn’t scoring quite as much. No, it’s not because of her bench role, it’s because Hiedeman only knocked down 28% of her three-point attempts. That’s a career low for her.
In the playoffs, it was The Napheesa Collier Show. She was a wrecking machine for Minnesota, putting up 38/6/4 in their 102-95 Game 1 victory, and then surpassing that next time out. Collier hung a 40-spot on the Mercury, finishing with 42/5/4 plus a steal and two blocks in a 101-88 win, and maaaaaybe ending Diana Taurasi’s career along the way.
Hiedeman was a major impact on the Game 2 win, finishing with a +23 for her time on the court. She had eight points and seven assists in that one after putting up four points, two rebounds, and four assists in about the same amount of playing time in Game 1. Head coach Cheryl Reeve didn’t go particularly deep with her bench in either game, so Hiedeman will probably have to play a big role against her old team in the semifinals.
Connecticut got to the semifinals by ending The Caitlin Clark Experience and the Indiana Fever in a 2-0 sweep. Those of you who kept track of the Sun when Hiedeman was in town are probably surprised to find out that it was Marina Mabrey who led the way for Connecticut in the first round. She averaged 22 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 4.5 assists after coming over to the Sun in a mid-season trade with Chicago. Don’t worry, DeWanna Bonner (18.5 points, 7.0 rebounds against Indiana) and Alyssa Thomas (15.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 13.0 assists) are still doing what they do and they will have to be accounted for in this series one way or another.
2024 WNBA Playoffs
Semifinals
#2 Minnesota Lynx vs #3 Connecticut Sun
Game 1: Sunday, September 29, 7:30pm Central, ESPN
Game 2: Tuesday, October 1, TBD, TBD
Game 3: Friday, October 4, 8:30pm Central, ESPN2
Game 4*: Sunday, October 6, TBD, TBD
Game 5*: Tuesday, October 8, TBD, ESPN2