MINNEAPOLIS—Olivia Miles will have plenty of opportunities to wash away any lingering bad tastes from the final seconds of Minnesota’s heartbreaking 91-90 season-opening defeat to the Atlanta Dream on Saturday night. A game in which the Lynx led nearly wire to wire, save for those last 11 seconds that measured the difference between victory and defeat.
On draft night, moments after the Lynx made Miles the No. 2 overall selection in the 2026 WNBA Draft, Miles said, “I’m excited to compete, and be intense, and learn a new pace of the game, and fight over ball screens on every play, and have my ‘welcome to the league,’ moment.”
The first entry of ‘welcome to the league’ moments for the rookie sensation came in the waning seconds, 6.6 of them to be exact, when Miles attacked the basket, as she’d done so successfully all night long, only to be denied at the rim by Allisha Gray, the reigning All-WNBA first-team selection Miles had been fearlessly dueling through nearly all of her 34 minutes on the floor during her WNBA debut.
Minnesota did get one more chance after Gray’s block on Miles. After a jumpball, Miles fired a pass to Emese Hof underneath the basket. This time Angel Reese came through for the block and the Dream officially completed the comeback win in a game in which they trailed by as many as 19.
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The result will sting until the Lynx can get back on the floor again, and it will sit in the loss column of the standings all year, but it shouldn’t take away from the full scope of Miles’ performance in her first WNBA game, which was historic. The rookie packed the stat sheet with 21 points, eight assists, two steals, and two blocked shots. She managed to stay out of foul trouble and hit all eight of her free throws.
“She played great,” Lynx head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve said after the game. “She played great. She did a lot of things well. She learned a lot I’m sure, it’s her first game, but she was big time for us.”
Miles etched her name alongside some elite company, becoming just the fifth player in league history to score 20 or more points and dish out five or more assists in their debut, joining Cynthia Cooper, Tonya Edwards, Candace Parker, and Dawn Staley in that elite club.
“Yeah, it’s pretty cool,” Miles said after the game when asked about what it meant to be in such elite company after one game. “It’s a testament to my hard work and my mindset coming into the game. But, you know, my team trusts me and they need me to do that. So just staying aggressive and the outcome will be the outcome, but it’s definitely cool to be in that group for sure.”
Miles’ ability to take control of the offense and be an orchestrator represents a bit of a changing of the guard in Minnesota, where Courtney Williams has been the primary facilitator over the past two seasons. Williams, who dished out five assists to go with 14 points in the game, will still have the ball in her hands plenty, but has embraced the opportunity to slide over to her more natural shooting guard position and made it clear she has nothing but the utmost faith in the rookie point guard holding the keys to Minnesota’s offense.
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“I mean she’s a little killer,” Williams said while seated beside Miles during the postgame press conference. “I said, ‘Look, let me move out your way. Let me move out your way and move to the two, and let you do what you do best.’ So, happy to have her. Happy to be back in my natural position, and she out here killing it, man. Like I said, this little joker right here is like a baby Chelsea Gray. She’s gonna be cold, she’s gonna be so cold. I’m just excited to be part of the journey.”
The new-look Lynx led by Miles with Williams and Kayla McBride flanked beside her, still have some work to do. After blitzing Atlanta for 52 points on 52.6% shooting from the field in Saturday night’s first half, Minnesota tumbled back down to earth and only managed 38 points in a second half where the Dream made it a point to erase the Lynx’s potency on the perimeter.
Minnesota is unlikely to feel good about any kind of moral victory, even against an Atlanta team widely expected to contend for the top of the Eastern Conference. The Lynx held the lead in the game for every second between their first basket of the game, and Atlanta’s last. Angel Reese was dominant in the paint in her Dream debut, and powered a 46-26 advantage on the glass while grabbing a game-high 14 herself. The Lynx missed seven free throws, and committed 11 second-half turnovers that led to 14 points for the Dream.
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It’s safe to assume it was a tough film session when the Lynx reviewed the pros and cons from a dramatic curtain raiser to their 2026 season. Though Minnesota has much to figure out, something that feels certain is their highly-decorated rookie is worth the hype. The evidence of which can be found not only in the box score, but also in the words of endorsement from her veteran teammates after going to battle with her for the first time.
That belief alone could be an essential ingredient in Minnesota’s season.
“It’s special,” Miles said. “To have that support from my teammates, especially my right-hand man on the court, the one-two punch, it means everything to have her belief in me and trust [me] to run the one. The one is not easy. She knows that and it’s a big responsibility. She (Williams) gave it to me with open arms and she’s excited to be on the receiving end of passes and not have to bring it up 94 feet with pressure every time. So [I’m] just excited to do that for her and help our team out in any way I can.”
