Olivia Miles and the Minnesota Lynx have been an instant match in a WNBA season of change

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Olivia Miles could hardly have found a better place to launch her WNBA career.

The Minnesota Lynx might well have landed their latest franchise player.

In a season of transition and transformation across the league, coach Cheryl Reeve and the Lynx have shrugged off the loss of a big chunk of their formidable 2025 team to start 5-2 and take sole possession of first place after a surgical victory over Atlanta on Wednesday.

With star Napheesa Collier sidelined following ankle surgery and five of the top eight players from last year gone, Miles has calmly and confidently taken over as the point guard for a title contender. That's an uncommon situation for the second overall pick in the draft, but there's nothing ordinary about Miles.

“She has this pause and burst that’s really, really special. She plays with her eyes so well. Her manipulation of defenders is like no player I’ve ever seen,” said Reeve, who has started her 17th season as head coach and fourth with the dual role of president of basketball operations. “There’s just so many places she can go from a tempo standpoint, to help us play a little faster.”

Miles, an All-American who led TCU to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament two months ago after putting off the draft by a year and transferring from Notre Dame for her final college season, had 21 points and eight assists in her WNBA debut for the Lynx three weeks ago. She was the first rookie guard to start the opener for Minnesota since Monica Wright in 2010.

Miles has scored in double digits in all seven games, the longest streak to start a season for a Lynx rookie since Seimone Augustus had nine straight 10-plus-point games in 2006. Miles is the fourth player in league history to average at least 15 points, five rebounds and five assists through her first seven career games, following Caitlin Clark, Sabrina Ionescu and Candace Parker.

“I always kind of think to myself that I’ve got this,” Miles said. “I always have to walk on the court with that energy, especially as a point guard, in the most humble and confident way, just being the leader on the court and trusting in my work and what I can do.”

Miles has repeatedly been able to use her vision and quickness to get to the rim, pleasantly surprised to find more open space in the lane than in the college game. She has seamlessly formed a productive pick-and-roll duo with newcomer Natasha Howard, too. Playing defense for the demanding Reeve, who desires intense ball pressure from her guards, has been the steepest learning curve, but Miles has by all measures handled herself well on that end of the floor.

She has the right personality to fit in with a veteran team, too.

“I have to have the confidence to speak up and to let my game flow and get my teammates open and reassure them that everything’s going to be OK," Miles said.

She is a cat lover and a self-proclaimed video game nerd who seeks regular time outside in nature as an antidote to the high-pressure environment she's in on the court. The native of New Jersey is proud of her roots, too: She had the names of her parents and brother sewn into the suit she wore to the draft.

The bookish look Miles sports with goggles on the court and glasses off of it is not for show, either. Smarts run in the family, with her mother Maria (chemical) and father Yakubu (software) both engineers by trade.

For the foreseeable future, Miles will be a professional basketball player, a “generational point guard” that Reeve coveted in the draft. She had one a decade ago in Lindsay Whalen, who just happens to be an assistant coach on the staff. Miles promised Whalen she'd pepper her with questions about playing the position in the league and for Reeve, and soon after the draft she was looking up Whalen highlights to refresh her memory of her style and skills.

“She wants to get better. She wants to work every single day,” Whalen said. “I love her energy.”

With only four returning players from last season's final roster, Minnesota is tied with Washington for the fewest among the non-expansion teams in the league. That includes Collier, who has yet to play. So while there's plenty being asked of this rookie right away, Miles has already endured her share of challenges, from a torn ACL that kept her out of action for more than a year at Notre Dame to the criticisms that came her way after she left for TCU.

“I learned my self-worth and to bet on yourself in moments where it may seem risky or it may not work out, and look where I’m at now?” Miles said. “I’m just so grateful that I waited one more year, or else I wouldn’t be here.”

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Minnesota Lynx guard Olivia Miles (5) gestures during the first half of a WNBA basketball game against the Atlanta Dream Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Minnesota Lynx guard Olivia Miles (5) shoots over Toronto Tempo forward Laura Juskaite (2) during the first half of a WNBA basketball game Thursday, May 21, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Minnesota Lynx guard Olivia Miles (5) stands on the court during the second half of a WNBA basketball game against the Toronto Tempo Thursday, May 21, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Minnesota Lynx guard Olivia Miles (5) celebrates toward guard Courtney Williams (10) after a basket made by forward Natasha Howard (1) during the second half of a WNBA basketball game against the Atlanta Dream Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Minnesota Lynx guard Olivia Miles (5) works toward the basket while defended by Atlanta Dream guard Jordin Canada (3) during the first half of a WNBA basketball game Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Jordan Staal looks at the Carolina Hurricanes' on-their-game play as being part of a machine.

One that keeps rolling through its process, over and over, in smothering scoring chances and keeping the pressure on an opponent.

It has them within a win of reaching their first Stanley Cup Final in two decades entering Friday night's home Game 5 against the Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference Final.

“Right now, when you get into these grooves, it's just kind of the machine,” the captain told reporters Thursday morning in Montreal. "You just kind of want to keep it running, keep doing what you're doing.

“I don't think the guys will waver too far from the next shift, the next play, the hyper-focus that we're on.”

The Eastern Conference's top seed started this series with a jarringly horrid start after going 11 days between playoff rounds — the longest postseason layoff in more than a century — and promptly allowing four goals in the first 11-plus minutes of a 6-2 loss.

Ever since, though, the Hurricanes have gotten more and more to their preferred style that helped them sweep through Ottawa and Philadelphia in the first two playoff rounds. And that has helped them grab control of the series from the on-the-rise Canadiens who arrived at this round earlier than some expected.

Carolina won a pair of 3-2 overtime games, first at home and then on the road, then dominated from the puck drop of Wednesday's 4-0 road romp that pushed the Hurricanes to a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

The Hurricanes are getting the puck into the offensive zone, using the aggressive forecheck to keep it there and pressure the Canadiens while giving talented goaltender Jakub Dobes a lot of work. The Game 4 win offered a withering case study, with Carolina scoring three goals in a nearly three-minute span of the first period then shutting off everything as the Canadiens tried to regroup.

It wasn't perfect. Notably there was a nearly two-minute 5-on-3 opportunity in which the Hurricanes didn't put a shot on Dobes with a chance to knock out the Canadiens midway through the second period.

Not that their coach was dwelling on it.

“I'm not pointing at any negative on this game, no chance,” Rod Brind'Amour said Thursday morning.

Now the pressure is fully on the Canadiens, who battled through two long series that included Game 7 road wins at Tampa Bay and Buffalo while the Hurricanes started 8-0 in the postseason.

Montreal hadn’t lost consecutive games since mid-March and hadn’t lost three straight games since a five-game skid in November.

“Obviously everybody knows where we're at, we do,” forward Cole Caufield said Thursday after the team arrived in North Carolina.

The Canadiens pounced on the slow-starting Hurricanes in Game 1 by repeatedly getting clean breakouts and breakaways with skaters hitting full speed as they blew unchecked through the neutral zone.

But as this series has worn on, the Canadiens have looked a half-step — sometimes more — behind.

Montreal defenseman Alexandre Carrier said Thursday the focus is down to small details such as winning more 1-on-1 battles, and then building from there to hopefully stop the Hurricanes' push.

“It's a big opportunity,” Carrier said. “We're not dead yet. So it's important to really be excited for tomorrow and confident. And I'm excited to see what we can do.”

The Hurricanes have more than double the shots on goal (108-43) in the past three games. And while some of that is due to a style that naturally leans into shot volume, the Hurricanes have steadily tightened their defensive grip on a skilled Canadiens team.

The Hurricanes took a 19-3 edge in shots on goal in the third period, keeping the Canadiens pinned in their defensive zone while finishing with a total of 18 shots. That marked the second time in three games that Carolina had more shots on goal in a period than Montreal had for the game, the other in the first period of Game 3 (16-13).

Carolina had a 42-15 edge in high-danger chances for Games 2, 3 and 4, according to Natural Stat Trick.

"We talk about all the time defending as a five-man unit,” Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin said. “And our forwards are doing a great job of helping out with that, and allowing us to be tight-gapped, allowing us to be aggressive, allowing us to play the way we have to play.”

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Montreal Canadiens' Nick Suzuki (14), Cole Caufield (13) and Kirby Dach (77) watch the final minutes of play in front of head coach Martin St. Louis against the Carolina Hurricanes during third period of Game 4 of the NHL Eastern Conference final Stanley Cup playoff series game in Montreal on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)

Carolina Hurricanes' Andrei Svechnikov (37) is congratulated on his empty net goal over the Montreal Canadiens by teammate Seth Jarvis (24) during third period of Game 4 of the NHL Eastern Conference final Stanley Cup playoff series game in Montreal on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)

Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen is congratulated by teammates Sean Walker (26) and Alexander Nikishin (21) following their Game 4 NHL Eastern Conference final Stanley Cup playoff series win over the Montreal Canadiens in Montreal on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP)