Olivia Miles was already off to a prolific start to her professional career, scoring double digits in each of her nine games to lead the Minnesota Lynx to the top of the WNBA standings. Now, this year’s No. 2 pick in the WNBA Draft is part of history with a single-game rookie record eight 3-pointers in Minnesota’s 87-84 win over the Golden State Valkyries.
Miles finished Thursday’s game with a career-high 28 points to go along with seven assists, three blocks and only one turnover. The Lynx were a team-high plus-14 in her minutes. Minnesota moves to 2-0 in Commissioner’s Cup play as the Lynx attempt to return to the Cup final for the third consecutive season.
“She went crazy,” Lynx guard Courtney Williams said on the broadcast after the victory. “She carried us in that first half. I don’t know why they kept going under, but I told her, ‘They wanna keep going under, make ’em pay,’ and that’s exactly what she did.”
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The 3-point jumper has mostly eluded Miles so far in her WNBA tenure. Entering the game against the Valkyries, she had made 2 of 18 3s and didn’t attempt any during Minnesota’s most recent game, a 34-point romp over the Phoenix Mercury. Miles’ prodigious passing still made an impact, but she resembled the player she was during the start of her college career.
Before she tore her ACL at Notre Dame, Miles was a dynamic point guard who didn’t have much of a jump shot. During those two-plus seasons, she made 24.6 percent of her 3-pointers and was even worse off the dribble, making 22.8 percent of those attempts.
Post-ACL, Miles can hardly be considered the same player. After she recovered from her injury, she made 37.6 percent of her 3-pointers at Notre Dame and as a transfer at TCU, including 35.8 percent of her off-the-dribble attempts. The Lynx had been waiting for that version of Miles, and she arrived Thursday.
“I’ve always been able to shoot,” Miles said. “I think it’s just a matter of me being comfortable, me taking the right shots, getting in the right rhythm for me obviously within our system, so I just felt comfortable tonight. Obviously, they were going under the ball screens, which, you know, they respect my drive. So I just had to be confident and knock them down.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Minnesota Lynx, WNBA
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