Ten days into Training Camp at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., with Sunday’s season opener versus the Connecticut Sun rapidly approaching, the Minnesota Lynx got their first taste of WNBA competition during a Monday morning scrimmage vs. the Las Vegas Aces.

Neither side kept score (or stats) over three 10-minute periods as both teams wanted to gauge their fitness and execution.

“I thought it was important — and all the teams feel this way — we’ve just got to start going up and down,” Head Coach and General Manager Cheryl Reeve said following the scrimmage.

“Game-like situations is something that we all want. I thought it was a good day, just in terms of conditioning and going up and down, getting that feeling again,” said Reeve.

funDDamental@damirisdantas 🏀 pic.twitter.com/hDnHGqgDUm

— Minnesota Lynx (@minnesotalynx) July 20, 2020

Added center Kayla Alexander: “It was nice to finally bang against other bodies, people who don’t know our plays yet. Get different reads, start to make actual reads on the floor, get up and down on the floor against someone else, it was fun.”

Though it was the first game-action of the Lynx’s preparation for the 2020 season, Reeve was pleased with her team’s conditioning given the COVID-19 pandemic. She credited her players’ work ethic during the three-month-plus long quarantine leading up to the squad’s trip to Florida.

“Where are we [conditioning-wise]?,” Reeve asked rhetorically. “I have been, from the beginning, pleasantly surprised our ability to be in a pandemic and be shut-down for when we got [to Florida], we were in a better base than what I anticipated.”

BROWN.
BANHAM.
💥💥💥 BANG. 💥💥💥 pic.twitter.com/WdmpzM5V5Q

— Minnesota Lynx (@minnesotalynx) July 20, 2020

Just because the Lynx are ahead of expectations, doesn’t mean Reeve isn’t concerned with a grueling schedule of 22 games in 46 days.

“It’s not enough time,” Reeve said of the two-week Training Camp. “What we’re doing is not enough time for [players] to be in great shape. I know once we’re done this week, they’re going to be ready to play a game because they’re tired of practicing, but it’s going to be challenging physically for all the teams, some more than others.”

The Lynx tip-off the 2020 season on Sunday versus the Connecticut Sun at 11am CT on ESPN.