The Minnesota Lynx took advantage of a Shock team playing on the road and in its third game in four days.
Minnesota stopped the Tulsa’s winning streak at two, winning 88-79 Sunday night in a game played to a national audience on NBA TV.
As she has in each game this season, Glory Johnson scored in double figures. On Sunday, she put in a game high 24 to go with eight rebounds.
Tulsa shot well to open the game and got off to a 20-12 start in the first quarter.
But the Lynx followed that with a 17-3 run and never trailed again.
With the score tied at 40 apiece, Minnesota had another run of 9-0 and ended the first half up 49-40.
The difference in score hovered around that nine-point margin throughout the second half and would wind up the final spread.
Tulsa coach Gary Kloppenburg said that run was the key to Minnesota’s win.
“That was it,” Kloppenburg said. “I will look at the film but there was a spurt there, I think we were hanging right in there and then all of sudden I think it might’ve been in the last three minutes of the quarter and that was probably the difference in the game.”
But the Shock did not just go away. Several times when the Lynx would threaten to open up the game, the Shock would answer with mini-runs to stay in it.
Shock rookie Skylar Diggins came close to putting up a double-double as she dished out 11 assists and scored nine points.
Tulsa tried to utilize the newly-reacquired Courtney Paris in the paint. She logged more than 17 minutes off the Shock bench and was a focus on the inside, but struggled somewhat getting the shot to fall. Paris had nine points on 4-of-10 shooting.
And that 40 percent was right about where the Shock shot as a team (42) as the hot shooting of the first quarter faded.
Minnesota’s Maya Moore and Seimone Augustus each had 22 points in the Lynx win.
Tulsa has lost to Minnesota by nine points in both games played this season.