Lynx sweep Mercury out of playoffs

PHOENIX — With another decisive sequence, the Minnesota Lynx have put themselves in position to repeat as WNBA champions.

Maya Moore scored 20 points and Natasha Howard added 17 to help the Lynx beat the Phoenix Mercury 82-67 on Sunday, completing a three-game sweep of the semifinal series.

“Defensively we feel like we got better from the first game to the third game but it was still a hard game,” said Seimone Augustus, who had 12 points and three steals for Minnesota. “Today just felt like a day when we were playing great basketball on both ends of the floor.”

The Lynx dominated the Mercury for three games, averaging 97 points a game and a double-digit victory each time. Phoenix hadn’t played a home game in the playoffs until Sunday and has been on the road a majority of the last month.

“These players have a lot of mileage on their tires, so to speak,” said Phoenix coach Sandy Brondello. “But they certainly competed. Minnesota has too much chemistry I would probably say. Just different people stepping up, they play very well together.”

Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve acknowledged that the Lynx may have caught a bit of a break with a road-weary Mercury squad, even at home.

“We have a team that is fairly deep, we can throw some different things at them,” she said. “So hopefully we got to that point where we get some separation.”

The top-seeded Lynx, who also eliminated the Mercury in the penultimate round a year ago, await the winner of Los Angeles-Chicago in their return trip to the WNBA finals.

Diana Taurasi had 12 points, after averaging 26.5 in her first four playoff games …

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