New-look Minnesota Lynx are again within the WNBA playoffs once more
Mechelle VoepelespnW.com
CloseMechelle Voepel covers the WNBA, ladies’s school basketball, and different school sports activities for espnW. Voepel started overlaying ladies’s basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996.
When Minnesota’s season concluded final yr, it felt poignant: the top of a spectacular section of a WNBA franchise being led by a home-state hero. But it surely wasn’t the top of the Lynx as high-quality opponents.
It has been a unique however fulfilling season this yr. Sure, Minnesota’s personal much-beloved Lindsay Whalen retired. Celebrity and former MVP Maya Moore is taking a sabbatical from basketball. Rebounding wizard Rebekkah Brunson was coping with concussion points earlier within the yr and is not on the roster. And the Lynx’s constructing block participant, 2006 No. 1 draft choose Seimone Augustus, wasn’t capable of play till Aug. 6 after knee surgical procedure.
But heart Sylvia Fowles has stood tall, and the Lynx have certified for the WNBA playoffs for a ninth consecutive season. They’re 16-15 and end with Indiana at dwelling on Sunday, at Phoenix on Sept. 6 and at Los Angeles on Sept eight — and nonetheless have an opportunity for a greater file than final yr’s 18-16.
“I am very happy with what we have executed this season,” stated Fowles, the previous MVP who’s averaging 13.9 factors, eight.9 rebounds and 1.four blocked photographs. “Lots of people counted us out as a result of we did not look the identical. However I truly by no means considered this as a rebuilding season. Everyone’s stepped as much as the plate.”
Guard Odyssey Sims, who Minnesota bought in a commerce with Los Angeles earlier than the season, has confirmed to be even higher than what Lynx coach/common supervisor Cheryl Reeve was anticipating. Sims is averaging workforce highs of 14.three factors and 5.four assists, and together with her explosiveness, Reeve now jokes she will be able to’t work out how the Lynx guarded Sims when she was with the Sparks.
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Napheesa Collier, the No. 6 draft choose who’s a rookie of the yr candidate, has seen her enjoying time improve as a result of season-ending damage of veteran signee Karima Christmas-Kelly, who was restricted to 6 video games. Reeve factors out that Collier has efficiently made a uncommon transition within the WNBA, going from enjoying energy ahead in school to small ahead within the professional recreation.
Collier is averaging 12.9 factors and 6.four rebounds, and what surprises nobody who watched her at UConn is how calm she is about the entire thing. Fowles, Sims and Collier have began each recreation this season.
Ahead Damiris Dantas is in her second stint with Minnesota, the place she started her WNBA profession earlier than going to Atlanta. A calf damage price her eight video games this season, however she’s averaging 9.1 factors and four.three rebounds, and Reeve has been glad to have her on the boards, particularly after rookie ahead Jessica Shepard was misplaced after six video games with an ACL damage.
Veteran guard Danielle Robinson brings expertise and her wheels — even when Reeve typically has to remind her that velocity is not as a lot a weapon when you’ve got too many turnovers. Robinson has labored on that, plus her shot choice, to fill within the level guard position.
The Lynx even have had gamers come off the bench to offer them some high quality minutes, like Lexie Brown, Stephanie Talbot and Temi Fagbenle. Augustus hasn’t performed loads in her 9 video games, however her presence on the bench — even when she wasn’t in uniform — was vital.
“We knew how depleted we had been going to be of lots of our veteran presence,” Reeve stated of constructing the Lynx for 2019. “And that was fairly daunting. So the primary half was free company, after which the draft. Once we bought to the top of that, we had a way of jubilation concerning the tall order it was, however the way it all got here collectively. We had gamers who had been passionate concerning the recreation and wished to enhance.
“We knew individuals had been anxious to see the dynasty, so to talk, finish. If you happen to can envision a constructing beginning to fall, however there are some individuals beneath with their arms up attempting to carry it up. And at occasions, their knees are buckling, however they’re doing it. That is what it typically felt like. Come hell or excessive water, we wished to be a workforce that was within the playoffs.”
Guard Odyssey Sims leads the Lynx with 14.three factors and 5.four assists per recreation. Minnesota clinched its playoff berth on Tuesday. Adam Pantozzi/NBAE through Getty Photographs
For eight years — a close to eternity in skilled sports activities — the playoffs had been mainly a given because the Lynx’s core stayed regular (the All-Star Fowles joined the workforce about halfway by means of the 2015 season). The Lynx had been the league’s mannequin franchise, successful 4 WNBA titles and reaching the Finals an extra two occasions throughout that stretch.
However final yr, the inevitable cracks began to indicate. The Lynx misplaced within the first spherical of the playoffs to Los Angeles and stated goodbye to Whalen. Information in early 2019 that Moore was sitting out the season, plus uncertainty about Augustus and Brunson, might have despatched Fowles into bittersweet nostalgia mode as soon as the season started with none of them on the ground together with her.
“I am simply the kind of individual, you roll with what you’ve,” Fowles stated. “You’ll be able to’t sit and ponder what you not have. It is like, ‘How can I be the very best teammate for these gamers?’ That was my focus.”
This yr, the Lynx have been doing what most profitable franchises should do sooner or later: create a brand new model of their id. With the identical head coach and two cornerstone gamers, they are not reinventing their tradition, however they’re updating it, and completely different persons are in management roles.
“If you happen to can envision a constructing beginning to fall, however there are some individuals beneath with their arms up attempting to carry it up. And at occasions, their knees are buckling, however they’re doing it. That is what it typically felt like.”
Coach Cheryl Reeve, on how depleted the Lynx roster was earlier than the season
One in every of them is Fowles, and she or he and Reeve acknowledge that has been arduous. Fowles’ character is to simply put her head down and quietly work her tail off. However having to be extra vocal?
“It has been uncomfortable,” Reeve stated. “And we knew this could be one in every of our greater challenges. The management workforce we had was such a well-oiled machine, and we might predict one another’s ideas.”
This season, Reeve defined, is a bit more like 2010, when she took over as Lynx coach, Whalen arrived in a commerce with Connecticut, and Augustus entered her fifth WNBA season as a standout participant able to take the following step. Whalen and Augustus needed to be taught to change into higher leaders.
Reeve takes pleasure in how the Lynx have responded to issues like a four-game shedding streak in June, with three of these video games at dwelling at Goal Middle. How they pulled themselves out of the deep disappointment on the losses of injured Christmas-Kelly and Shepard, two gamers who would have made an influence with their play and hard-working attitudes. How the Lynx have bounced again from three losses in August with three wins in a row going into the common season’s ultimate week.
“In the course of the wintertime, I knew my position must change, and the dynamics can be completely different right here,” Fowles stated. “I did not know it could be fairly as arduous as it has been, when it comes to being extra vocal. However I used to be keen to step as much as the problem. And we have had an excellent group of girls who’ve labored arduous. I am pleased I’ve had the possibility to make a playoff run with them. I am excited to maintain it going.”