Minnesota’s Moore back on top in WNBA All-Star Game

“It’s worth it, I think, for the experience that our fans get to have,” Moore said, another shiny silver MVP trophy sitting in front of her. “And to cap it off today with a really entertaining day, a fun day, I think you could see it on all of our faces: We had a good time.”

Since Moore was drafted No. 1 in 2011, the Lynx and their fans have had a lot of those, winning four championships and making the WNBA Finals two other times. This year has been more challenging, though. The Lynx are 15-10, at one point losing four games in row, and even had a home loss to the league’s last-place team, Indiana.

After falling at home to Connecticut 83-64 on July 15, Moore was unusually terse. She was 2 of 11 from the field that day, part of what has been season-long shooting concerns. Two days later, she opted not to be captain of the All-Star team, despite earning that right as the leading vote-getter.

Moore said she just had too much to do with Minnesota being the All-Star host to be captain. But one couldn’t help but wonder if it was really more about her not wanting to focus on anything except the struggles she and the Lynx were having, and figuring out an answer for them.

The Minnesota fans, who adore Moore, accepted her bypassing the captaincy. Even though it meant the Sparks’ Parker — usually a villain in these parts because of Los Angeles’ epic battles with the Lynx the last two years in the WNBA Finals — would be captain and pick a team instead under the new format this season.

The Lynx then won their next three games before the All-Star Game, including a season-high 38-point performance from Moore at Phoenix on July 21.

Those wins helped move the Lynx into third place, and the all-important bye into the semifinals — awarded to the top two teams — is very much in reach. Moore still isn’t shooting the ball like she wants; she currently has career-low percentages overall from the field (40.3) and from 3-point range (32.4). But even though Saturday didn’t count in the standings, it definitely counted for positive energy. It mattered to Moore to have a day like this in front of her fans, and it mattered to them, too.

“As someone who played an All-Star Game in front of her home fans, it is nice to perform well,” said Team Delle Donne’s Sue Bird, whose Seattle Storm hosted the game last year. “Because you’re getting all this love, and you want to make sure you are giving it back. There’s no pressure — it’s an All-Star Game — but to perform well, get the MVP, I’m sure that felt good for Maya. When she hoisted the trophy, you could feel everybody in the stands being excited for her.”

It also says a lot about just how consistently great Moore has been that here she is winning another All-Star MVP — she also won in 2015 and ’17; there was no game in 2016 because of the Olympics — when there is so much competition from players of all ages.

The only rookie in this All-Star Game, Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson, had 18 points for Team Delle Donne and is fulfilling her promise as a No. 1 draft pick.

“It was a lot of fun going out and playing the game we love,” said Wilson, whose Aces were announced Saturday as host to next year’s All-Star Game in Vegas. “It was interesting having conversations with people and hearing different aspects of the game and about life from Sue, or Diana (Taurasi) or Sylvia (Fowles). That’s really what I enjoyed the most.”

Washington’s Kristi Toliver led Team Delle Donne with 23 points.

Allie Quigley, the 3-point shooting contest winner for the second year in a row, had 18 to match Moore on Team Parker, which also got a MVP-caliber performance from Dallas’ Skylar Diggins-Smith. She finished with 17 points and eight rebounds, as well as eight assists, which tied Bird for most Saturday.

The Wings are in sixth place in the WNBA at 14-11, and hope to make a strong push toward the playoffs behind Diggins-Smith and center Liz Cambage, who dunked at the end of the All-Star Game and scored a WNBA single-game record 53 points earlier this month.

“We have to win by any means necessary,” Diggins-Smith said of the Wings. “A lot of these games are coming down to little things. And we’re back at it; we have practice tomorrow.”

That grind to the finish will resume with three games Tuesday; the regular season ends Aug. 19. For Moore and the Lynx, next up is a trip to Los Angeles against the archrival Sparks on Thursday (ESPN2, 10 p.m. ET). That’s followed the next night by a meeting in Seattle with the first-place Storm, and then a game back here in Minneapolis on Sunday against the hottest team in the league, Atlanta, which has won eight in a row.

Every game from here on out is crucial, but those three in a four-day stretch will say a lot about where the Lynx are. It’s just more of what has been a pressure-cooker season for the defending champs, along with everyone else hoping to contend.

Moore said that competition is great for the game, but then added with a laugh that it took its toll on the players, coaches and their loved ones.

“It’s just very stressful for anyone who’s invested in us as people,” she said. “These games, they’re devastating because we’re all picking up our intensity. And so each game feels so … it feels like a playoff game.”

The All-Star Game, of course, didn’t feel that way. It was more a time of smiles and sisterhood, of fans appreciating all and booing none, of the sport’s best putting on a show and knowing it left everyone happy.

“The turnout was beautiful to look around,” Moore said. “It just felt good. I think people were just really excited to have it here at a fun time; having four of us [Lynx players] was really special.

“So I just appreciate having my teammates around, and all the people who have been making this place a special place as well.”

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