Mitchell Hansen
Web Editorial Associate
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On Friday afternoon, the Minnesota Lynx held their final practice before they take on the Connecticut Sun on Saturday in St. Paul.
The matchup between the Lynx and Sun will be the third in 10 games to start the season and will be the final time the two teams will square off in the regular season. Minnesota owns a 2-0 season series advantage over Connecticut.
“They fought through some injuries early on. . . They’ve just been dealing with a lot,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said of the Sun. “I think that the biggest thing is Alyssa Thomas’ move to the (power forward position) as a result of those injuries. I think she is finding matchups that she likes there. . . They are scoring like crazy.”
In their two games against the Sun this season, the Lynx have been able to get a good understanding of what challenges the Sun present. One of the key challenges in the game on Saturday will be Connecticut’s three-point shooting. The Sun are leading the WNBA this season in shooting 41.1 percent from behind the arc.
“I know the three ball, when they do shoot it, it’s a really high percentage. You look at their shot chart, it’s really impressive the percentage from three,” Reeve said. “There are real matchup problems for us.”
The Lynx aim to continue their strong start to the 2017 campaign when on Saturday night, looking to improve to a perfect 10-0 on the season.
“We don’t want to be one of those teams that comes along as the season progresses, we want to be ready from the beginning of training camp moving forward,” Rebekkah Brunson said of her team’s undefeated start. “Every game is important to us. . . It’s extremely important for us to come out and just play as well as you can from the beginning.”
Minnesota and Connecticut will square off at 7 p.m. Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. The game will be aired on Fox Sports North Plus, NBATV and 106.1 BOB FM.