Olivia Miles leads the Minnesota Lynx into a Tuesday night matchup with the Phoenix Mercury, and the Lynx need a response after opening their season 0-1. The game tips at 10 p.m. ET on Victory+.
Miles arrives with some rhythm after scoring 21 points in a 91-90 loss to the Dream, a close finish that showed both her scoring touch and how little margin the Lynx have right now. Phoenix comes in at 1-1, giving this game an early-season edge between two teams trying to establish themselves before the standings start to harden.
That makes the timing matter. It is still early enough for a win to change the tone around Minnesota, but also early enough for one loss to sit heavily if the Lynx cannot turn a narrow defeat into a clean finish. Monique Akoa Makani is out for reasons not related to injury, leaving the Mercury with a notable absence as they prepare for the matchup.
This is a watch guide for the Lynx-Mercury game, with betting, odds, ticketing and streaming links provided by partners of The Athletic. The guide was created using technology provided by Data Skrive, but the basketball piece is straightforward: Minnesota needs to turn a competitive effort into a result, and Miles is the player most likely to shape whether that happens.
Tuesday offers the Lynx their next chance to do that in front of a national streaming audience, and the pressure is already there because the season is only one game old. If Minnesota can pair Miles’ scoring with a better closing stretch, the 0-1 start stops being the story. If not, the early standings will look a little more difficult to climb.
