The Minnesota Lynx (22-8) have come out of the Olympic break on a powerful word, successful five-consecutive video games because the resumption of the 2024 WNBA season in mid-August, and having formally clinched a spot within the playoffs, they’ll now deal with taking part in for postseason seeding.
Although the Lynx have been in third place within the WNBA standings for a lot of the common season, they’re now inside a half sport of the second-place Connecticut Solar. Again-to-back wins over the Las Vegas Aces have put far between Minnesota and the defending champions within the standings, they usually’ve additionally gone a good distance in getting ready the Lynx for the playoffs, in response to head coach Cheryl Reeve.
“Greater than something, we needed to ensure we had the suitable stage of compete,” Reeve advised media after her group defeated Las Vegas for the second time in three days. “We talked about this being a very precious time. That is playoff basketball.” Reeve went on to quote the dearth of that competitiveness as a cause why the Lynx fell to Connecticut in final yr’s playoffs.
It’s arduous not to be ok with Minnesota’s probabilities in 2024, although, a minimum of not when Napheesa Collier is taking part in the most effective basketball of her profession. The star ahead has been unbelievable since getting back from the Olympics, averaging 25.6 factors per sport on 66.2 p.c taking pictures from the sphere whereas including 9.2 rebounds and 1.6 steals per sport.
In what might have been Collier’s most spectacular single-game efficiency up to now, she scored 27 factors on 11-of-15 taking pictures in opposition to the Aces, soundly outplaying MVP favourite A’ja Wilson regardless of being at a top drawback of their particular person matchup. She additionally outworked the whole Aces group on the glass, flattening 18 rebounds herself to Las Vegas’ 17—simply the third time in WNBA historical past such a feat has been completed, in response to Throughout the Timeline.
In typical Collier vogue, she was fast to deflect the following reward. “It’s not simply me. It’s group protection,” mentioned Collier after the sport. “Having that assist behind me is so essential as a result of A’ja is a tremendous participant and he or she’s not going to be contained by one individual. It’s how properly we defended collectively.”
“Whether or not she’s being guarded by a group’s greatest or whether or not she’s guarding the most effective, to be a extremely profitable group, your greatest participant must be the one you depend on in these moments,” Reeve added. There’s no query that the Lynx can depend on Collier. She’s more likely to repeat as an All-WNBA First Workforce honoree and is on the very brief record of gamers who may conceivably problem Wilson for MVP.
The successes of the 2024 Lynx have been outlined by contributions up and down the group’s roster, nonetheless, particularly because the Olympic break. Guard Courtney Williams has excelled as Minnesota’s main playmaker, averaging 5.4 assists per sport; she is also taking pictures 54 p.c from the sphere in her final 5 video games. Ahead Alanna Smith has been simply as environment friendly, taking pictures 51.6 from the sphere and 42.9 p.c on 3-pointers throughout that span, whereas additionally averaging one steal and 1.4 blocks. Kayla McBride, although she’s cooled off a bit since her torrid begin to the season, remains to be making 2.9 3-pointers per contest, and he or she’s additionally been flashing her defensive chops as of late, averaging a team-high 2.4 steals because the break.
“I’ve mentioned this a number of occasions: Any one in every of us can have 30 [points] each night time, and that’s the fantastic thing about our group and the way unfold out our expertise is,” Collier talked about after scoring 30 herself in entrance of a house crowd that included Lynx legend Maya Moore. It’s a philosophy that Reeve tries to instill in her group yearly, and with only a quarter of the Lynx’s regular-season video games remaining in 2024, it’s trying prefer it’s been a hit.
Lynx shore up frontcourt depth with commerce for Hines-Allen
The Lynx have been consumers on the 2024 WNBA commerce deadline, sending guard Olivia Époupa, ahead Sika Koné and a second-round choose within the 2026 WNBA Draft to the Washington Mystics in change for veteran ahead Myisha Hines-Allen.
Hines-Allen, an All-WNBA Second Workforce honoree in 2020, was averaging eight factors and 4.7 rebounds per sport for Washington on the time of the commerce, and her addition bolsters a Lynx frontcourt that had been in want of a extra bodily presence. It didn’t take lengthy for Hines-Allen to get acclimated; in Minnesota’s most up-to-date win over the Indiana Fever, Hines-Allen performed the whole fourth quarter, incomes reward from teammates and coaches alike.
“We have been attempting to get breaks from guarding submit gamers, and [Myisha] is a superb defender, so it was good to have her have the ability to are available and have an effect on issues instantly,” mentioned Collier after the sport. “We wanted her physicality, plain and easy,” added Reeve. “We wanted her willingness to compete within the submit and her willingness to compete for rebounds.”
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Hines-Allen’s willingness to do the soiled work has additionally opened up new lineup potentialities for the Lynx, with Collier shifting from energy ahead to small ahead and away from guarding larger, stronger gamers. It’s a possibility that Hines-Allen is grateful for, regardless of nonetheless being new to the group. “I’ve been within the league for seven seasons. I understand how to set a display screen and I understand how to roll,” Hines-Allen advised native media. “It’s simply basketball on the finish of the day.”
It helps having a familiarity with Reeve and the way she desires her group to play. Hines-Allen mentioned that there was mutual curiosity between her and the Lynx when she was a free agent in 2022, and that the Lynx at present run most of the similar offensive units she was accustomed to in Washington. Buying and selling for Hines-Allen was a win-now transfer for Minnesota, and the group might be anticipating her to play a giant position because it fights for playoff positioning.
