Todd Barin
Web Editorial Associate
Twitter
The Lynx concluded their final pre-season practice this afternoon before taking on the Phoenix Mercury tomorrow night, May 14th, on ESPN at 6:30 p.m.
It was Minnesota’s first practice with every player in attendance as Rebekkah Brunson joined the squad after playing overseas.
“As far as the energy and atmosphere it felt really good,” Brunson said. “Just speaking with the girls before I got here, I know that everybody is excited for the season to begin and everyone’s excited for the possibilities that we have. I think I’m ready. I’m familiar with everybody so you don’t really have to work through that and the upside is you don’t have much time to think about it. You just come out and you play.”
The Lynx elected to practice in the Target Center for their final tune-up instead of the usual practice facility at Mayo Clinic Square.
“We thought it was important just because we didn’t have a preseason game at home to kind of get in that routine,” Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said of practicing in the Target Center. “Believe it or not, when you haven’t done it for a while you kind of get out of your flow.”
Despite Brunson and Seimone Augustus both joining the team this week, Reeve is confident that the chemistry within the starting lineup, having won a Championship with one another last season, will shine bright.
“It’s not hard when they’ve been doing it for, what is it now, the seventh year for Lindsay, Seimone, Rebekkah, so you’d have to ask them but it just doesn’t seem that hard to get back and acclimated (with each other),” Reeve said. “I’m not going to worry about those small things, we’ve already told them we aren’t going to expect that we play a perfect game, the expectation is that we play really hard, and play really determined and when things don’t go as we’ve planned, that we just keep playing and play through whatever it is.”
Tomorrow night the Lynx will:
-Be playing as the defending WNBA Champions, also known as the team that everyone wants to beat.
-Be battling a great Phoenix Mercury team who lost to Minnesota in the Western Conference Finals last season, and that was without the great Diana Taurasi.
-Be the center of attention by: playing on national television on ESPN, kicking off the 20th WNBA season, and raising their 2015 WNBA Championship banner.
“It doesn’t get any better, we want to try and create that excitement right off the bat, it’s the 20th season, a lot of excitement surrounding women’s basketball this year, so why not?” Augustus said. “There can’t be any more pressure than coming back off a Championship, we’ve faced tough times before and a lot of pressure situations. Each game is important as far as we’re concerned and tomorrow is the biggest game because it’s the next game.”