cover-image

The Lynx only have two games remaining in their 2018 season. Time flies. Unlike in previous years, they are facing down the prospect of playing two single-elimination games at the beginning of the playoffs. The biggest thing yet to be determined is whether or not any of those games will be played at home. While the loss to Chicago on Tuesday night hurts, the Lynx could still move up to the No. 6 seed and play the first single-elimination game at home if they get a little help from the rest of the league (they need Phoenix to lose).

There are many things to keep an eye on as the season wraps up, but a few of them stick out. Here are five you should definitely pay attention to.

No. 1: The Point Guard Position

The loss of Danielle Robinson to a season-ending ankle injury has thrown a wrench in a rotation that was actually working very well for the Lynx. Robinson was playing some of her best ball of the season before she went down, and coach Cheryl Reeve had found a nice balance playing Robinson with both the starters and reserves.

Obviously, that’s all changed now.

Tanisha Wright has gotten the start for the Lynx the last two games as Reeve has elected to use Lindsay Whalen off the bench. Wright didn’t have a great game on Sunday, but excelled in the Lynx’s Tuesday night loss to the Sky. She scored 12 points and added six assists and two three-pointers. It’s going to be very important for the Lynx that Wright pulls the trigger when she’s open from behind the three-point line—the team desperately needs floor spacing.

Wright is an effective floor general, and capable of defending with a high level of physicality. While she doesn’t have the speed of Robinson or the passing touch of Whalen she’s undoubtedly capable of holding the position down. Starting Wright gives Reeve some interesting rotational options. With Wright in the starting lineup, Reeve can bring Whalen off the bench to play the point and slide Wright to shooting guard, giving Seimone Augustus rest earlier in the game. Alternatively, she can sub Whalen straight in for Wright, or pull Cecilia Zandalasini and use Augustus as a small forward depending on what the opposing defense is doing.

It also makes sense to start Wright if she is going to be playing point for most of the game. Wright is more naturally suited to the shooting guard slot so it’s beneficial to give her some rhythm minutes right away, whereas Whalen can easily come in and do well with less time to acclimate.

The Lynx also just signed Sydney Colson, but Reeve said before Tuesday’s game that she was unlikely to be used much except to spell rotation players for brief stretches. That’s no knock on Colson, who could certainly be an effective player in the right situation, but with little to no time to learn the Lynx’s offense, she’s probably not going to be able to execute many of their sets. Colson played 5:35 minutes against the Sky and definitely looked capable of filling that role. She scored three points with two assists and two rebounds and flashed exciting speed and ball-handling ability.

No. 2: Cecilia Zandalasini

It’s been an interesting few games for Zandalasini. With Rebekkah Brunson sidelined with a broken nose and concussion symptoms, Zandalasini has been starting at small forward for the Lynx. However, because of Maya Moore’s quickness, opposing teams have often been using their power forwards to defend Zandalasini. It’s taking Zandalasini some time to adjust. Now that she’s on opposing scouting reports she’s not getting quite the quality of looks she was earlier in the year.

Zandalasini has certainly improved as a ball-handler, and her defense has always been solid, but her primary use in the Lynx’s offense is as a shooter. However, she’s still figuring out when she should shoot and when she should defer to other players. That’s no easy task on a team with so many good players.

The young Italian forward is only 22 years old, and Reeve is giving her plenty of run to sort some of her issues out. It’s important to remember that Zandalasini has barely played one year in the WNBA, and she’s younger than most WNBA rookies. She was a part of the Lynx’s 2017 championship run and got to be around the team and learn the culture (while getting a ring along the way), but she missed training camp this year.

While the Lynx view Zandalasini as a long-term investment, she could also be critical for the Lynx down the stretch. Her “shooting credibility,” as Reeve calls it, opens the floor up for Sylvia Fowles and the rest of the Lynx’s post players. With Zandalasini on the wing, her opponent can’t afford to leave her open to help out on Fowles. The Lynx aren’t a great three-point shooting team, and that’s allowed defenses to collapse on them. The more shots Zandalasini can hit, the better off the Lynx will be.

In the Lynx’s last few regular-season games, look for Zandalasini to be given a lot of court time to continue working through some of the kinks in her game. Despite her shot not falling, Zandalasini has been playing with a lot of confidence and she’s been getting good looks. When Rebekkah Brunson returns, Zandalasini will probably see her minutes decline, but she’ll hopefully be able to come in ready to let it fly.

No. 3: Maya Moore’s Defense

Ask Reeve and she’ll tell you that it’s easy to tell when Maya is exhausted—you just look at her defense. Moore has been playing very well lately, but she had a few defensive lapses late in the Lynx’s game against the Storm that proved costly as Breanna Stewart got loose for a couple three-pointers.

When Moore is zoned in and not forced to expend all her energy on offense, she’s an excellent defender. In the last few games, Moore’s offensive confidence has carried over to the other end of the court. We’re seeing a different Moore than we did earlier in the year—she’s energetic, passionate, hitting crazy shots, jumping passing lanes and generally doing the type of highlight-reel stuff we’ve become accustomed to over the course of her career.

Check out this bonkers play from the other night:

⚠️ don't try this at home, kids ⚠️
just 🐐 things https://t.co/ctUk9rYcg1

— Minnesota Lynx (@minnesotalynx) August 12, 2018

It takes both supreme skill and supreme confidence to pull this off. Moore has the break, but who wants two points when you could have three? That doesn’t work, but Moore gets her own rebound, then goes 2-on-1 to eventually get the lay-in. Many, many players in the league would get benched if they tried something like this, but not Moore. She’s earned the right to have a little fun.

When Moore’s energy is up and she’s feeling it, there really isn’t another player like her. Even when her shots aren’t falling she has the potential to be a true impact player on defense, as long as she isn’t completely gassed. Managing Moore’s energy will be an important subplot in the season’s final two games—the Lynx need her ready to go in the playoffs.

No. 4: Playoff Seeding

Speaking of the playoffs, what a race we’ve found ourselves in the middle of. While things have spread out a little in the last few weeks, there’s still a ton of uncertainty in the bottom half of the playoff bracket.

The Seattle Storm will finish with the No. 1 seed and the Dream only need one win or one Mystics loss to lock up No. 2. The Mystics are 1.5 games ahead of the Sun in the No. 3 spot and have a similar situation to the Dream—either a win or a Connecticut loss would lock up that seed.

The No. 4 to No. 7 seeds are where things get really interesting. The Sun and the Sparks have the same record (19-13) and the Mercury (18-14) and Lynx (17-15) are right behind them. The Lynx won’t be able to overtake the Sun or Sparks because they don’t have tiebreakers over either and the most wins Minnesota can finish with is 19. However, the Lynx do have the tiebreaker over the Mercury, so if Minnesota wins its last two games and Phoenix takes a loss, they’d get home-court advantage in a single-elimination playoff game between the two teams.

It doesn’t affect the Lynx, but the battle for the No. 8 seed is getting heated. The Wings are spiraling (they’ve lost nine in a row), and the Aces, who seemed like they’d be on the outside looking in just a few short weeks ago are suddenly very much in the mix. Las Vegas is just a half-game behind the Wings, and if they beat the Liberty tonight, the two teams will go into their Friday matchup with the same record.

However, it’s important to note that the Aces need to finish with a better record than the Wings to grab the No. 8 seed because the Wings hold the tiebreaker. Even if Dallas loses to Las Vegas, if they can beat the Dream (who could be resting players) and the Aces fall to the Storm (same), in their last games of the season, Dallas could sneak in.

Watching the Lynx’s last two games should be your No. 1 priority the rest of this week, but if you’re looking for some other entertaining and meaningful WNBA ball, here are my picks:

-Aces at Wings. Friday, August 17, 7 p.m., League Pass. Who’s going to make the playoffs?
-Dream at Mercury. Friday, August 17, 9 p.m., League Pass. Will the Mercury give the Lynx a chance to overtake them?
-Sparks at Sun. Sunday, August 19, 2 p.m., Twitter. Can the Sun defend their higher seed?

No. 5: Whalen’s Farewell Tour

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or traveling internationally, you’ve certainly heard that Lindsay Whalen will be retiring at the end of this season.

While I’m sure the WNBA wasn’t thinking about Whalen’s retirement when they were planning the schedule (though if you have a conspiracy theory, hit me), you couldn’t really design a more storybook conclusion to Whalen’s regular-season career.

She plays her second-to-last game in Connecticut against the team that drafted her way back in 2004. Whalen was understandably well-liked in Connecticut and should get a warm welcome from the team’s fans. After the Connecticut game, the Lynx return home to face the Mystics, which are coached by Mike Thibault, Whalen’s first WNBA coach and the only coach she’s had in the league other than Reeve.

It’s been pretty remarkable to see the reaction from people all around the game of basketball to Whalen’s retirement. In the day-to-day grind, it’s easy to forget what an impact Whalen has made on the sport and on the state of Minnesota. It was great that everybody got a chance to take a minute and voice their appreciation for what Whalen has done. While she will relentlessly defer credit to her teammates and coaches, Whalen is a one-of-a-kind player who will leave the game with a lasting legacy.

We’re all very luck that Whalen is sticking around town to coach the Gophers. It’ll be a ton of fun to see her on the sidelines. She’s always been a brilliant leader on the court, it will be cool to watch her development as a head coach.

Highlight Reel

Sometimes Maya Moore makes shots that make me question physics.

HOW

DO

YOU

DEFEND

HER???????? https://t.co/K94WEiOulj

— Minnesota Lynx (@minnesotalynx) August 10, 2018

Moore’s ability to make probably one of the toughest shots you can take on a court look that easy is completely unfair to her competition. She’s been heating up in the last few games and it’s been so, so fun to watch.

Quote Corner

“Just how lucky to be here at this time . . . Just how well it worked out for her career. Just how special of a relationship (we have). I know she says she feels lucky about things, but for me it’s just once in a lifetime. That sort of relationship is once in a lifetime.” –Reeve on what she’ll remember from coaching Whalen.

“Yeah you know I mean I played off the bench for USA, so I tried to get into that mentality, and bring as much energy as I could. Play at a productive level for as long as I could and come in with energy and still be able to play call and doing those things are things that I feel like I can bring to the team. I tried to get that mentality that I’ve done this before and if its what’s best for the team that’s what I’m going to do, and the last two games Danielle Robinson played great until she got hurt and Tanisha Wright played great. So obviously the team has been on a really good roll and has had a lot of momentum and I’m always going to support Coach’s decision.” –Whalen on coming off the bench.

“Just making the playoffs is not a goal. It is the first step. We’ve always been mindful through the years to celebrate every success because sometimes you start to take it for granted and time passes you by and you don’t have enough appreciation for it. I think the longevity of it comes from the collection of players that have stuck together in a time where the grass could be greener or maybe somebody wants more of a role. This group has just stayed together. It speaks to their commitment and greatness. I’m just fortunate to be the one on the sidelines with them during that run. It’s special, there’s no doubt about that.” –Reeve on the Lynx’s eighth-straight playoff appearance.

Up Next:

The Lynx travel to Connecticut to take on the Sun before returning home to play the Mystics in their last game of the season. There’s not much to say—the Lynx need to win.

Related News

Practice Report | Collier’s ROY Resume, Jessica Shepard and Karima Christmas-Kelly’s Engagement From The Sidelines

Column: 5 Things To Keep An Eye On As The Lynx Wrap Up Their Regular Season

Lynx Legend Katie Smith Remembers Her Time In Minnesota

New Role Leads to Success For Peters