MINNEAPOLIS — As the final seconds of the Minnesota Lynx’s 103-90 win over the Dallas Wings ticked away Sunday, a Target Center crowd of 14,421 began chanting, “Kay-la, Kay-la.”

Kayla McBride waved to the Lynx fans, heading to the bench after sinking her WNBA single-game record 10th 3-pointer. The late-game corner 3 capped off her career-high 43 points on 10-for-14 shooting from beyond the arc.

“Do you remember that your name’s Kayla?” Olivia Miles asked her teammate in the postgame news conference.

Only “sometimes,” McBride admitted.

The Lynx guard, in her 13th WNBA season, and her sixth with the Lynx, is more commonly known as “Mac” or “K-Mac,” or in a game like Sunday’s, “McBuckets,” as she broke one of the WNBA single-game records that’s been most elusive to crack.

Six WNBA players made nine 3-pointers in a single game on eight different occasions, including three times this season, and two last year. Kelsey Mitchell first hit the mark in 2019.

Napheesa Collier found McBride open in front of the Lynx bench for the record-breaking look with 2:23 to play as the Lynx polished off their season’s sweep of the Wings.

The victory officially clinched a playoff berth for the Lynx, a day after there was a premature mini-celebration at Target Center when the team thought it had clinched.

Late in Sunday’s game, associate head coach Eric Thibault had to let McBride know she was one away from the record “because at that moment all I see is the rim, and just trying to make a play,” McBride said.

“People are aware of what’s going on,” McBride said, “but you just have to stay in the moment.”

McBride played a team-high 35 minutes and 17 seconds in the Lynx’s win over Las Vegas on Saturday, which wrapped up about 24 hours before the tip off Sunday’s game.

McBride has a “very strong support system that keeps my nervous system very low key after a game,” she said. She spent the tight turnaround between games with her girlfriend, watching TV. Even her dog knows her routine.

When she blows her candles out, “he knows where to sit because my [compression] boots are going to be on,” said McBride. “I’m being so serious.”

McBride is third in the league in minutes played this season, behind the Las Vegas Aces’ Chelsea Gray and the New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart.

“She’s just a pro’s pro,” said Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve. “Mac knows [you] can’t make excuses. You got to show up for your team.”

McBride sank a career-high eight 3-pointers in two games, in 2024 and 2025. Her 43 points Sunday stands as the most for a Lynx player in a regulation regular-season game.

“Hearing her name chanted — and fully deserved — and just seeing a community of people who are truly there to support something they love is so special,” said Miles, who put up 20 points and a career-high 13 assists.

McBride has been a pivotal piece of the Lynx’s league-best 27-7 record, typically given the opponent’s best perimeter player to mark while leading the Lynx in scoring in eight consecutive games in July.

In June, she also moved into fifth all-time in WNBA career 3-pointers made.

“I’m so grateful for this the city of Minneapolis for just loving me the way that they do,” McBride said. “I’ve gone O for 7, 0 for 8. Then you have moments like this, and they’re right there, and they’re the first ones like chanting your name — even if it is my government [name].”

When McBride was subbed out along with the rest of the Lynx starters, she hugged Reeve, who said it was “disgraceful” McBride missed out on her sixth career All-Star nod this year.

“We stand in huddles. She knows before I draw a play,” Reeve said. “She’s an All-WNBA player ... who chased Paige [Bueckers] around while dropping 43.”

Hopkins alum Bueckers finished with a team-high 23 points for Dallas. The Wings were missing No. 1 overall draft pick Azzi Fudd (knee), downgraded to “out” the morning of Sunday’s game.

Former Lynx forward Jessica Shepard also exited after five minutes of play due to an ankle injury and did not return.

____

©2026 The Minnesota Star Tribune. Visit startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC