Napheesa Collier is sidelined, and the Minnesota Lynx are still sitting at 15-4 and leading the Western Conference. The reason that equation works traces directly back to one rookie point guard running the show.

WNBA Hall of Famer and analyst Lisa Leslie broke down exactly why Olivia Miles has become so critical to this Lynx offense during a CBS Sports studio analysis segment.

"There's good point guards, and then there's great point guards — the type who facilitate and make others better. Olivia Miles has made players better. Courtney Williams has eaten this season, scoring some of the highest points of her career, and Kayla McBride has as well. Distribution is important. They run the floor well, and that's how you know Olivia Miles is in charge," Leslie said in the CBS Sports studio analysis segment.

Leslie's point holds up under the numbers. Williams is averaging a career-best 15.8 to 16.9 points per game, well above her career mark of 12.4 PPG, and she went for a season-high 30 points earlier in June, including 19 in the first half alone. McBride is adding 13.1 points on a career-high 40.3% to 42.1% from three.

That Williams explosion does not happen without Miles engineering the possessions that lead to it. Leslie spelled out the specific mechanism in the same CBS Sports segment.

"When a veteran gives up the ball and returns it to the rookie to reset the offense, she puts Courtney Williams in position to score from her usual spot," Leslie said.

Miles is why the whole thing is possible in the first place. Selected second overall in the 2026 WNBA Draft, she is putting up averages of 18.7 points, 5.7 assists, and 4.8 rebounds a game while shooting 51.9%, becoming the quickest WNBA player to get to 300 points and 100 assists, doing so in just 18 games, topping the old mark held by Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers.

That historic efficiency is not just showing up in the stat sheet. Miles is backing it up every time the Lynx step on the floor, and Sunday against Dallas was another reminder of exactly that.

Olivia Miles Leads Lynx Past Wings

The Lynx just recorded their seventh consecutive win over the Dallas Wings, and Miles was at the center of it again. Minnesota beat Dallas 85-77 on Sunday afternoon, moving to 3-0 against the Wings this season after going 4-0 against them last year.

Miles finished with 21 points and 8 assists, several of them highlight-reel feeds to Natasha Howard rolling to the basket.

Howard turned those opportunities into 21 points and 14 rebounds, while McBride knocked down four three-pointers, all in the first half, for 17 points.

The Lynx went scorching hot early, hitting seven of 11 three-point attempts in the first quarter alone to build a 28-16 lead, and extended it to 16 at halftime against a Wings team that opened 0-for-10 from deep.

Dallas pushed back in the third quarter, closing on a 19-6 run to get within ten, and pulled as close as 73-69 in the fourth. Howard answered with a personal 6-0 run and scored ten points in the final five minutes to put the game away.

Paige Bueckers led the Wings with a game-high 25 points but dropped to 0-6 all-time against her home state team. Azzi Fudd, the only player drafted ahead of Miles this year, added 21 points but fell to 0-3 in the head-to-head matchup.

The Lynx are now off until Friday, when they travel to Brooklyn to face the New York Liberty for the first time this season.

Who do you think benefits most from Olivia Miles running the Lynx offense? Comment down below.

Read More at Her Sports Nation!

Written by

Utsav Gupta

Edited by

Utsav Gupta