Practice Report | Reeve Discusses Preparing To Finish Games Strong

The story of the Lynx over the last week or so has been their inability to finish games. We wrote about it here in Thursday’s practice report and it’s top of mind for the team. However, finishing isn’t the easiest thing to practice because it can be hard to simulate the mindset teams have at the end of games. The Lynx are doing it, though, running multiple drills with their scout team explicitly designed to spur execution down the stretch.

“You have to understand the desperation. That was part of the teaching this week, different things that we’re facing. Some of it is just listening out of a timeout, executing what you’re supposed to do in a play,” said head coach Cheryl Reeve. “Does it take time? I hope not. I hope it’s something we can recognize and immediately do.”

It’s a mental game as much as a physical one. When the Lynx are able to get themselves in a mindset that the end of practice is as important as the end of games, they’re able to get close to the intensity of actual games.

“We talked about, you have to see this as the last three minutes of a game,” said Reeve. “If you approach it any different than that you’re not going to play the way you should and then you’re not going to play the way you should in a game. I think for some it is difficult, but right now we have their attention because they understand… it’s a big piece that we have to hurdle.”

It’s a new battle for the Lynx, who for many years have had a veteran team that typically out-performed everyone else down the stretch. Now it’s about teaching not only the culture but the technicalities of being a great closing team.

“We know what it feels like to be on the other side. To break a team. It’s a tie game with three minutes to go, bam bam bam, 7-0 run,” said Reeve. “We’re going to get stops but all of a sudden a couple foul calls and we don’t execute on offense and boom, game’s over.”

The Lynx have a chance to show off their progress when they take on the Liberty on Saturday. For more info read Kyle Ratke’s scouting report.