Minnesota Lynx clinch No. 2 seed in WNBA playoffs on last-second game-winner by Bridget Carleton

The Minnesota Lynx clinched the No. 2 seed in the 2024 WNBA playoffs in dramatic fashion on Tuesday night thanks to a last-second, game-winning 3-pointer by Bridget Carleton. Her heroics gave the Lynx a 78-76 win over the Connecticut Sun, who were the only team that still had a chance of chasing down the Lynx. 

After a back-and-forth start, the Lynx started to take control late in the second quarter, and eventually pushed their lead out to as many as 12 points in the third. The veteran Sun refused to go down without a fight, though, and used a big run in the fourth quarter to re-take the lead on an and-one by Dijonai Carrington. 

Including that bucket, there were a remarkable eight lead changes in the final two minutes and 25 seconds, as this one turned into one of the games of the season. The last flip of the scoreboard came with 4.6 seconds remaining when Carleton took a pass from Napheesa Collier and buried a deep triple. 

Carleton, who is one of the many candidates for Most Improved Player this season, finished with 13 points and three rebounds on 3-of-4 from behind the arc in another strong outing. Including this game, she's made 44.9% of her 3-point attempts, which is good for fourth in the league. 

The Lynx have now won seven games in a row, and are 13-1 since the Olympics, which is the best record in the league in that span. They've also now beaten every team in the league this season and have reached 30 wins for the first time in franchise history. 

They will renew an old rivalry in the first round of the playoffs when they meet the No. 7 seed Phoenix Mercury. Those two have faced each other six times in the postseason, most recently in the single-elimination second round in 2020, which the Lynx won. 

Under the current format, the first round is a best-of-three series, with the higher seed hosting Games 1 and 2. Thus, if the Lynx take care of business, they can advance to the semifinals without having to play a road game. However, if they lose one of the first two games, they would have to go to Phoenix for a winner-take-all Game 3. 

That series is set to begin on Sunday, with a tip off time to be determined.