Maya Moore has a simple answer for the strange ups and downs of the Minnesota Lynx's 2018 season.
"I don't think it's complicated. We just have to pay attention, focus and play with conviction," Moore told the (St. Paul, Minn.) Pioneer Press after the Lynx's home loss to the suddenly improving Las Vegas Aces on Friday evening. "We're going to continue to come together and stay with it, and whatever we're going to do we're going to do it together. That's worked for us in the past."
The sixth-place Lynx (12-9), who host the Connecticut Sun on Sunday at the Target Center in Minneapolis, have alternated wins and losses during their past six games.
"I think we all, anybody that has been a part of this team this year, has seen this before," Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said, according to the league website. "So I know exactly what we have. It doesn't feel very good when you're seeing it happen.
"I don't think we're mentally tough enough in games like these. We start to feel sorry for ourselves and we're not a very good team when that starts to happen. I give Vegas credit, though."
The Aces franchise, in its first season in Las Vegas, beat the Lynx for the first time since 2010. Las Vegas has already surpassed its 2017 win total by two games.
Point guard Lindsay Whalen scored a season-high 22 points against the Aces, but Moore and Sylvia Fowles combined for just 19.
"We just have to toughen up, understand it's a long season and come back here and get ready for the game on Sunday," Whalen told the Pioneer Press.
The Sun (11-10) beat the Phoenix Mercury on Friday night to get back above .500 after losing at the buzzer to the New York Liberty on Wednesday. Eighth-place Connecticut leads Las Vegas by 1 1/2 games for the WNBA's final playoff spot.
"Wow, I don't have a lot of words," Sun coach Curt Miller told the Hartford Courant after his team ended its three-game losing streak. "The last handful of games for us are what the WNBA is all about: close games.
"And we've lost some of these close games recently, including in Phoenix, and I asked them late if we had learned from the close loss Wednesday night, and I also told them that we no longer have to be better than Phoenix for 40 minutes. All we have to do is be better than Phoenix for two minutes."
Sun forward Chiney Ogwumike said the team has had to learn how to win close games.
"I think we've dealt with everything every team can throw at us, and we used those as learning opportunities so today we just were really determined," she said. "We know what it's like to be behind, we know what it's like to be ahead. We just need to know what it's like to close a game, and tonight we closed a game."
