Alexander Shun

Web Editor Associate | @alexpshun 

On Sunday afternoon, the Minnesota Lynx will host the Eastern Conference-Champion Indiana Fever at Target Center for game one of the 2015 WNBA Finals. Players and coaches are excited to be back for their fourth Finals trip in five seasons.

“This is the best time of the year, you’re in the Finals, we’re back,” Lynx guard Lindsay Whalen said. “We’ve been here before but this season has really been great and we’e really come together in these playoffs.”

The Finals will be a rematch of the 2012 WNBA Finals during which the Lynx had homecourt advantage, but watched as the Fever easily defeated Minnesota and won the series 3-1. Lynx players and coaches say they’re thinking about that series and have learned from it but they are not dwelling on it.

“After coming in to the Finals that year, I feel like we weren’t as mentally tough as we needed to be,” said Lynx forward Maya Moore. “It’s a great lesson for us. It’s just exciting to get another opportunity to get back here and be even better than we were, not just in 2012, but in any year since we’ve been here.”

“I think for me, I don’t remember [the 2012 Finals] as well [as Moore],” Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said. “I remember losing game one, I just don’t remember the feelings around the team at that time – whether we had gone through any stormy situations. I just know about the situation with this team, this year.”

The Lynx have faced the Fever twice this season and came away victorious in both meetings; however, the lineups in those two meetings are drastically different from the lineups both teams will roll out on Sunday afternoon.

In the first match-up, Minnesota’s second game of the season, the Lynx were without Anna Cruz, Renee Montgomery and Sylvia Fowles while the Fever were without All-Star forward Tamika Catchings as the Lynx claimed a 78-69 victory in Indiana.

Catchings played in their second meeting this season, but guard Briann January did not. The Lynx had Cruz, Montgomery and Fowles all play in the second meeting as well, however Whalen and guard Seimone Augustus did not. The Lynx came away with the win though, beating the Fever 81-65 in Minnesota. Point being, neither team has truly faced the best possible version of the other, something they will do for the first time on Sunday afternoon.

“We know a little bit about Indy, but to be honest with you, both of our games had players playing that aren’t kind of the bulk of what’s going on now,” said Reeve. “So we don’t know them like the back of our hands and we’re going to rely heavily on our scout preparation.”

The Fever, after taking two-of-three games from the Chicago Sky in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, entered the Eastern Conference Finals as huge underdogs to the top-seeded New York Liberty. In a best-of-three series however, the Fever won the decisive third game on the road in New York and punched their ticket to the Finals to take on the Lynx.

“They played really well last night,” said Whalen. “They’re going to be ready.”

“We know that they’re a tough-minded ball club that believes in themselves so we have our work cut out for us,” said Moore.

“They’re a hard-nosed, physically and mentally tough team, and that’s why I think it’s just going to be a tremendous series,” said Reeve.

Both teams are playing well and both determined to get another championship, and with so many veteran players on both squads, there will be big moments, exciting plays and huge moments all throughout the series, and Minnesota is ready.

“At the end of the day, you want to play in the Finals, you want to give your organization a chance to win a championship and us and Indiana have both put themselves in a position to do it and now it comes down to what happens on the court and players making plays,” Whalen said.

“We are ready to move forward together, and that’s exactly what it’s going to take to beat a good Indiana team that causes teams to play to their style – they impose their will on teams,” Moore said. “We’re ready for the challenge and it’s going to be a fun game.”