The Game 

The Lynx take the floor on Wednesday for their second game of the season. They will try to follow up an impressive opening-night performance against the Chicago Sky with another win against the defending champs, the Seattle Storm.

The story for the Storm in the offseason is a sad one. Reigning MVP Breanna Steward tore her achilles playing overseas and will miss the entire WNBA season and star point guard Sue Bird is dealing with a knee injury that will likely sideline her for a few months.

Nevertheless, the Storm are not to be overlooked—they still have some real talent and opened up their season with an impressive win over the Phoenix Mercury. They are led by guard Jewell Loyd, a 2018 All-Star who seems to fly perpetually under the radar on the same team as Stewart and Bird. Loyd is a good three-point shooter and a great defender with a real knack for playmaking and rebounding at the guard spot.

The Storm are also buoyed by former Lynx forward Natasha Howard who had a breakout season last year and followed it up with a huge 21-point, 16 rebound performance against the Mercury. She’ll be up against a different kind of defender in Damiris Dantas than DeWanna Bonner, but the Lynx will need to game plan carefully to keep her under control.

What: Lynx vs. Storm
When:  7 p.m.
Where: Target Center
Watch: CBS Sports Network, Fox Sports Go
Tickets

Follow-Up Performance

Napheesa Collier lit the WNBA world on fire on Saturday when she scored 27 points in her first-ever NBA game. Now she has to prove that wasn’t a fluke.

It won’t take another massive scoring outing for her play to be successful. It’s more important that her efficiency translates. Collier shot 80 percent against the Sky and hit three three-pointers. That three-point-shooting was especially encouraging to see. Collier changed her shooting form in training camp and has seen good results in practice but being able to translate that technique into a game is a different beast.

In addition to reforming her shot, Collier also switched positions to play small forward in the WNBA. While creating from the outside is still a work in progress for Collier, her experience as a power forward has molded her into such a good player in the paint that she has a superior post game to many WNBA small forwards. Collier has a unique and diverse skillset and the Lynx need her to continue using it.

Staying Physical

The Lynx were certainly the aggressors on Saturday against the Sky, and they benefited from it, shooting 32 free-throws to the Sky’s 15.

While Minnesota can’t expect that kind of massive disparity at the line every game, what they can do is make sure that they stay aggressive. Players like Collier, Sylvia Fowles, Odyssey Sims and Danielle Robinson thrive in the paint and are highly capable of creating contact. They need to make sure to keep putting that pressure on the rim and forcing their opponents into making tough decisions.

The Storm are a better defensive team than the Sky, so the Lynx need to balance creating contact with being a little more careful of offensive fouls and driving into tough situations expecting fouls. The Storm will be more disciplined and won’t bail the Lynx out as much.

Injury Report:

Lynx: Seimone Augustus (knee) is out.  Karima Christmas-Kelly (knee) is questionable.
Storm: Breanna Stewart (achilles) and Sue Bird (knee) are out.

Probably Starters:

Lynx: PG—Robinson, SG—Sims, SF—Collier, PF—Dantas, C—Fowles
Storm: PG—Canada, SG—Loyd, SF—Mosqueda-Lewis, PF—Howard, C—Langhorne