Twenty-five games down, nine to go in the Lynx’s 2018 regular season. What a ride it’s been. If you’d told me in May that the Lynx would be in third place in the WNBA, 3.5 games out of first place heading into the All-Star break, I’d be happy and not all that surprised. If you’d told me that they’d be just a game and a half out of eight places, I’d question your sources.

But here we are. A few days out from the All-Star game and both are true. In an incredibly competitive WNBA season, the Lynx are both pushing at the top of the standings and fighting to stay out of the bottom.

It’s been a ridiculous season. There’s so much talent in the league that truly any team can win on any given night. The Fever, Sky, and Liberty probably won’t make the playoffs, but the Aces (currently in ninth) are banging down the doors of the teams above them in the standings. Las Vegas is super talented, and if they’d figured things out a little earlier in the season we’d be having a very different conversation.

There are so many storylines that being so focused on the Lynx has prevented me from fully diving into, and while I’m so happy to be covering the reigning champs, sometimes I need to take a step back and realize how much else is going on in the WNBA. The Dream, for instance, are the hottest team in the league after starting the season around the bottom—they’ve won eight in a row. The Sparks have lost eight of their last 12 and are having a very similar season to the Lynx in terms of dealing with expectations. The Connecticut Sun have plummeted since winning seven of their first 10 and have dealt with some truly bizarre drama culminating in Courtney Williams (one of their best players) leaving the team for several games after a confrontation with teammate Alex Bently before Bently was traded to the Dream.

When the dust has settled on this season, I wouldn’t be surprised if it goes down as the best WNBA campaign of all time, and the league isn’t stopping now. Future talent awaits on the horizon: Sabrina Ionescu, Arike Ogunbowale, Megan Gustafson and many other college stars are ready to come in and make their mark.

But that’s thinking too far ahead. The big-picture implications of what this season means for the league and for women’s basketball aside, this season has been a little bit of everything for the Lynx.

It’s not going out on a limb to say that the Lynx weren’t ready for the start of the season. They thought they were, training camp was good, and if you looked at the team on paper they seemed ready to immediately pick up where they left off competing at the highest level. But winning takes a toll. I’m sure fans of other franchises will roll their eyes—‘Cry me a river, four-time champions’—but it’s true. Add up all the games extra games the Lynx have played, the constant expectations over the last eight years, the additional responsibilities that come with being the most visible and successful team in the league for such an extended period of time and the emotional energy it takes to play every team at their best every night and you have the groundwork for a really difficult situation.

Complicating things even more, in hindsight, was the process of figuring out how to balance the veteran Lynx stars’ minutes with the need to win games. Eventually, after several contests where Rebekkah Brunson and Lindsay Whalen played far less than they should have, coach Cheryl Reeve stopped thinking as much about minutes. ‘Win the game,’ became her primary operating principle, and if she needed to lean more on her veterans, so be it.

That approach worked. Following almost a full week off in mid-June that Reeve used to reexamine her approach and address some of the issues plaguing the team, the Lynx went 12-4 in their next 16 games, bringing us to where we are now. The veteran play has stabilized, and the rotation has shortened, the bench unit, especially backup guard Danielle Robinson, has gotten far more comfortable, and the Lynx have started having fun again.

Still a question mark is the play of Maya Moore, who’s been unable to find the bottom of the net lately outside of a 38-point outburst against Phoenix. However, Moore has been active and engaged on defense, getting to the line, and playing competitive basketball despite her lack of offensive production. If Moore is engaged and competing, the Lynx will be OK.

That’s the storytelling approach to summarizing the Lynx’s season so far, but the numbers tell a story as well.

The Lynx allow the fewest points and rebounds to their opponents per game, and they defend the three-point line very well (second best in the league). They don’t grab very many offensive rebounds, but they’re one of the best defensive rebounding teams in the league. They average 79.4 points per game, fourth-worst in the league. The Lynx are a team that relies on their defense to carry them.

On an individual level, the Lynx don’t have one player that leads every category—they spread the wealth. Moore is Minnesota’s leading scorer, averaging 18.2 points per game. Fowles is their leading rebounder with 11.7 boards per contest (also leading the WNBA), Lindsay Whalen (3.3) and Danielle Robinson (3.1) are the assist leaders and Cecilia Zandalasini shoots the best percentage from three (44.7—pretty darn good). Oh, let’s not forget Fowles’ efficiency, she’s shooting 60.5 percent from the field.

The Lynx’s remaining schedule is brutal—no two ways about it. Their first week back they play a back-to-back at Los Angeles and at Seattle, then face the Dream at home two days later. Then they’re back on the road to play Chicago and Las Vegas in three days.

Priority number one for the Lynx this weekend has to be getting rest and getting their bodies right for the final stretch. The four Lynx All-Stars will have a lot of responsibilities during the next few days, but early next week they should be able to take a few days off. Moore especially seems like she could use the rest. When she turned down the duty of captaining an All-Star team I was initially confused, but judging from her play in the last two games, having that responsibility off her chest has really lightened her mood. She’s still been missing short a lot though—a telltale sign of tired legs.

This weekend should be a ton of fun, and in a lot of ways, it might be nice for the Lynx players to get away from the narratives surrounding the team and spend some time celebrating their sport. I’m certainly excited to have everyone in town—it’s not every day you get to see so many WNBA stars in the same building. Having four All-Stars is also not an everyday occurrence—Lynx fans, you’re spoiled. The Lynx have had four All-Stars in four different games. No other WNBA team has had four All-Stars more than once.

We’ll be right there with the Lynx this weekend. I’ll be posting and continuously updating a blog about what the players are up to and the various events happening this weekend, and I’ll be tweeting throughout as well. We’ll also have a podcast up! When the Lynx return, it’ll be time to focus in and fight for playoff position, but for now, let’s all just enjoy how cool it is to have the All-Star game here. Cheers until next time!