MINNEAPOLIS — The soundtrack of the final moments of the Minnesota Lynx’s 103-90 victory against the Dallas Wings on Sunday afternoon at the Target Center was as fitting as it gets. A few seconds after Lynx head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve emptied her bench, chants of “Kay-La! Kay-La! Kay-la!” reverberated around the arena.
Napheesa Collier, with a water bottle in one hand and a towel in the other, pointed a finger towards her long-time teammate. Assistant coach and Lynx legend Lindsay Whalen looked towards the recipient of the cheers and mouthed the words, “curtain call.”
Finally, Kayla McBride waved both her arms in the air in salute to the crowd saluting her, and smiled knowingly, as if scoring 43 points and hitting 10 3-pointers in 32 minutes was just another day at the office.
McBride might have made it look easy, but when the day was over she had done something no one in league history had ever done. Her 10 made 3s, on 14 attempts, marked the finest display of 3-point shooting in the 30-year history of the WNBA. It snapped the 8-way tie for the previous record of nine made 3s in a game that’s stood since McBride’s Notre Dame teammate Jewell Loyd became the first to hit nine in a game in 2023.
Most importantly, it helped the Lynx to a second-consecutive win against a winning team in as many days. A win that formally punched Minnesota’s ticket to the playoffs.
“I’m just very grateful, you know,” a visibly spent but beaming McBride told reporters in the postgame press conference. “I’m 34 years old. It’s my 13th year in the league. I’m exactly where I want to be. Coming back here in the offseason was the best decision I’ve ever made. I’m so grateful for the city of Minneapolis for just loving me the way that they do through everything. The trials and tribulations, good games, bad games, I’ve gone 0-for-7, 0-for-8, but then you have moments like this and they’re right there. They’re the first ones chanting your name, even if it’s my government [name]. I’m just really where my feet are. That’s the best thing I can give you.”
McBride, affectionately known to teammates and fans as ‘K-Mac,’ ‘Mac,’ or ‘Mackie,’ shared a laugh with her teammate Olivia Miles, who was seated beside her as they recapped the scene at the end of the game.
“Do you even remember your name is Kayla?” Miles teased.
“Sometimes!” McBride responded. “I’m like, oh yeah, that is my name.”
McBride’s day for the record books was simply the latest display of offensive fireworks from the 13-year veteran. Her 24.3 points per game average across the last four games earned her Western Conference Player of the Week honors. Her 18.4 points per game across the season is good for the highest average of her career. Her 100 made 3s this season is 2nd to only Atlanta’s Rhyne Howard with 101, and her 822 all-time makes from beyond the arc are the most among all active players.
In addition to providing some of the most high-octane offense of her career, McBride has been one of Minnesota’s most important players on the defensive end, constantly drawing the most difficult challenge and tasked with slowing down the opposing team’s biggest threats. This weekend, that meant Jackie Young followed by Paige Bueckers.
“She’s just a pro’s pro,” Reeve said postgame. “…Mac knows, you can’t make excuses, you’ve got to show up for your team. I think the incredible thing about Mac, first of all she’s an All-WNBA player. It’s disgraceful she wasn’t an All-Star. An All-WNBA player who chased Paige around while dropping 43, and she just knows that’s her job. She embraces it, [she] loves it.”
Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women’s Sports Daily
We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the women’s sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of women’s sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!
Reeve and McBride have grown close over their six-year run together in Minnesota. When McBride was honored with her first contract extension as a Lynx after Minnesota’s roller coaster 2023 season, Reeve introduced McBride at the press conference announcing the extension by saying “K-Mac is at the root of all the good that has happened for us this season.”
McBride, like most of the league, was a free agent entering 2026 and had the opportunity to go anywhere she wanted to. The chances to find out if the grass was greener somewhere else were plentiful, but as McBride said while seated next to Reeve after signing that extension in 2023, “I truly believe the grass is greener where you water it.”
“She knows the gig here,” Reeve said after the game on Sunday. “In an unprecedented free agency, had the choice to be anywhere and chose here. There’s something about that conviction and happiness that Minneapolis brings her in her personal life as well as her basketball life. When you feel like you’re bringing your authentic self, which she is, she’s not surprised by very much and she’s clockwork at literally everything.
“This franchise, we’ve been blessed to have her and I’m thrilled that she’s playing the best basketball of her career and has played the best basketball of her career as a Lynx. We’re very proud of that.”
Another one of the several storylines from Sunday’s game was McBride moving past fellow Lynx legend Seimone Augustus on the WNBA’s all-time scoring list. McBride’s 43 moved her up to 18th all-time with 6,013 points. Good for 7th most points among active players.
“Basketball is such a big part of my life, but who I am as a person, who I’ve grown to be in this city, there’s no price I can put on that,” McBride said. “So today I’m just so grateful. My best friend is in the stands, my family group chat, my teammates. I’m just right where I want to be. I’m going to go see Miss Connie at Whitey’s Saloon and make sure I have my moment. I have so many places here that I consider home. It’s just doing it in front of your family, you know what I mean? And that’s how I feel.”
McBride added that she’d soak in the moment, but get back to work quickly as the Lynx embark on a four-game road trip and have one of the league’s tougher schedules for their final 10 regular season games.
“As a coach doing this for so long, those relationships are what’s going to matter,” Reeve said. “I think Mac has watched hall of fame players, has watched players come back to this franchise and the way that those players feel about it, and feel about our relationships. Yeah, we won championships, but there’s more to it than that. Though we’re in pursuit of a championship, I mean these are lifelong relationships that you hope that you’re forming, and I know I feel that way about Mac.”
