Minnesota Lynx guard Olivia Miles set a WNBA rookie record for 3-pointers in a game with eight Thursday night in an 87-84 victory over the visiting Golden State Valkyries.
Miles, the No. 2 draft pick in April, hit eight of her 11 attempts from beyond the arc and finished with a season-high 28 points on 9-of-16 shooting. She also had seven assists and four rebounds.
Afterward, Miles spoke about her successful transition to the WNBA, averaging 17.0 points, 6.3 assists and 4.9 rebounds for the league-leading Lynx (8-2).
"It's just a testament to my mindset and my confidence," Miles said. "It's a lot of inner work to go and believe in yourself and constantly remind yourself that you deserve to be where you're at. The support that I have here to go out there and hoop and be myself, it just allows me to be comfortable."
Two WNBA rookies previously had seven 3-pointers in a game: the Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark in 2024 and New York's Crystal Robinson in 1999. Robinson was in her first season in the WNBA then but was 25 years old and had played professional basketball before, including in the short-lived ABL. Miles, like Clark in 2024, is a true rookie in her first season as a pro.
Miles also tied the Lynx franchise record for 3s, matching veteran guard Kayla McBride, who hit eight 3s twice during her six seasons with Minnesota. The previous Lynx rookie record was six, done four times, most recently by Maya Moore in 2011.
Miles' record night came after she was just 2-of-18 from behind the arc in her first nine games this season. Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve joked that Miles' 3-point barrage "was not on our bingo card, but we'll take it."
"The last few games, we feel like she's got opportunities to shoot the ball," Reeve said. "She's a good shooter ... and so we had been trending toward her being confident to take shots. Once she saw a couple go down, it felt like she was playing Baylor again, I guess."
For TCU this past season, Miles made 10 3-pointers, her college career record, against Baylor on Feb. 12 in an 83-67 victory. Before that, Miles played for Notre Dame, where her single-game high was eight 3-pointers against Pitt in 2025. Miles made 198 3-pointers in her collegiate career.
In Thursday night's win, Miles scored or assisted on 44 of the Lynx's 87 points. She has now scored or assisted on 317 points this season, second-most through the first 10 games of a WNBA career to Dallas' Paige Bueckers (318 in 2025). Clark scored or assisted on 312 points through her first 10 games in 2024.
"It's great for us," McBride said of Miles. "She has so many things she can offer us on both ends of the floor."