Practice Report | Lynx Preparing Themselves For ‘The Hardest Of Games’

Mitchell Hansen
Web Editorial Associate
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At any level and in any sport, when you reach the championship game or series, you’re going up against some of the best competition in the game.

That’s certainly the case for the Minnesota Lynx, who will have the task of facing the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA Finals. And they are focused on preparing themselves to be ready for that challenge.

“We have a chance to rest our bodies and come back here and work on stuff we need to work on. There’s a lot of people that don’t think we have stuff to work on, but that’s the furthest thing from the truth,” Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said after practice Thursday. “We have a ton to work on and we have had two great days of practice. We’re just trying to prepare for the hardest of games. . . We’re just trying to prepare ourselves for those moments where when we get to Game 1 hopefully we don’t have a lot of weaknesses.”

Minnesota and Los Angeles know each other well, having faced off in last year’s WNBA Finals and facing off against each other three times during the regular season. That means it will come down to the little things in each game that will make the difference.

“Once we start playing, we’re going to know their plays, they are going to know our plays,” Renee Montgomery said. “So it will come down to who just makes a play.”

The series against the Sparks will also feature some of the top talent the league has to offer. The series will contain four league MVP’s, which include 2017 MVP Sylvia Fowles and 2014 MVP Maya Moore of Minnesota as well as 2008/2013 MVP Candace Parker and 2016 MVP Nneka Ogwumike of Los Angeles.

“It shows the evolving with both teams and what we can do and how similar we are in so many areas,” Fowles said. “It comes down to the little things like us getting deflections, rebounding, getting stops, not letting them get to the rim, whatever it takes is what it’s going to come down to.”

Game 1 between the Lynx and Sparks will begin at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Williams Arena in Minneapolis. The game will be aired on ABC, 106.1 BOB FM, TuneIn Radio and the Lynx App.