Maya Moore scored 23 points to help the Minnesota Lynx to an 86-77 victory over the Atlanta Dream on Thursday night and a 3-0 sweep of the WNBA Finals.
Moore was named Finals MVP.
Rebekkah Brunson had 15 points and 12 rebounds, Lindsey Whalen had 15 points and six assists, Seimone Augustus scored 14 points and Janel McCarville added 10 points for the Lynx, who went undefeated in the playoffs and won their second title in three years.
Tiffany Hayes scored 20 points and Alex Bentley had 18 for the Dream.
Atlanta’s Angel McCoughtry, who led the league in scoring during the regular season, scored 13 points on 5-for-14 shooting from the field and committed six turnovers. She was 16 of 56 from the floor in the series.
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Minnesota rolled out to a 10-2 lead in the first four minutes. Atlanta made a run late in the first quarter to cut the Lynx margin to 17-13 with McCoughtry on the bench. Whalen was fouled with 0.4 of a second left in the first quarter and made all three free throws to extend Minnesota’s lead to 25-17 at the end of the quarter.
The Dream cut Minnesota’s lead to 34-32 on a 3-pointer by McCoughtry, her first field goal of the game, with 3:57 left in the second quarter. Minnesota made another run, but Bentley’s 3-point play with 3.3 seconds left in the second quarter trimmed the Lynx’s advantage to 40-37 at the break.
Minnesota regained the momentum in the third quarter on a spectacular play. McCarville got out front on a fast break and bounced the ball between her legs to Brunson, who scored and was fouled. She made the free throw to push the Lynx’s lead to 51-42. A 3-point play by Monica Wright increased the advantage to 60-44.
Atlanta got no closer than seven points the rest of the way.
Notes: Atlanta fell to 0-9 in WNBA Finals games. ... Minnesota outrebounded Atlanta 44-35 in Game 1 and 40-22 in Game 2. The Lynx won the rebounding matchup 30-29 in Game 3. ... McCarville scored eight points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field in the first quarter. ... McCoughtry had three turnovers in five minutes in the first quarter and went scoreless on 0-of-2 shooting from the floor.
