The Minnesota Lynx (22-8) have come out of the Olympic break on a robust word, successful five-consecutive video games because the resumption of the 2024 WNBA season in mid-August, and having formally clinched a spot within the playoffs, they’ll now give attention to taking part in for postseason seeding.
Although the Lynx have been in third place within the WNBA standings for a lot of the common season, they’re now inside a half sport of the second-place Connecticut Solar. Again-to-back wins over the Las Vegas Aces have put a ways between Minnesota and the defending champions within the standings, they usually’ve additionally gone a good distance in making ready the Lynx for the playoffs, based on head coach Cheryl Reeve.
“Greater than something, we wished to verify we had the suitable stage of compete,” Reeve informed media after her staff defeated Las Vegas for the second time in three days. “We talked about this being a extremely useful time. That is playoff basketball.” Reeve went on to quote the dearth of that competitiveness as a cause why the Lynx fell to Connecticut in final yr’s playoffs.
It’s exhausting not to be ok with Minnesota’s probabilities in 2024, although, no less than not when Napheesa Collier is taking part in the most effective basketball of her profession. The star ahead has been unimaginable since coming back from the Olympics, averaging 25.6 factors per sport on 66.2 % taking pictures from the sphere whereas including 9.2 rebounds and 1.6 steals per sport.
In what could have been Collier’s most spectacular single-game efficiency thus far, she scored 27 factors on 11-of-15 taking pictures in opposition to the Aces, soundly outplaying MVP favourite A’ja Wilson regardless of being at a top drawback of their particular person matchup. She additionally outworked the complete Aces staff on the glass, knocking down 18 rebounds herself to Las Vegas’ 17—simply the third time in WNBA historical past such a feat has been achieved, based on Throughout the Timeline.
In typical Collier trend, she was fast to deflect the following reward. “It’s not simply me. It’s staff protection,” mentioned Collier after the sport. “Having that assist behind me is so essential as a result of A’ja is a tremendous participant and she or he’s not going to be contained by one particular person. It’s how effectively we defended collectively.”
“Whether or not she’s being guarded by a staff’s finest or whether or not she’s guarding the most effective, to be a extremely profitable staff, your finest participant must be the one you rely on in these moments,” Reeve added. There’s no query that the Lynx can rely on Collier. She’s prone to repeat as an All-WNBA First Crew honoree and is on the very brief listing of gamers who might conceivably problem Wilson for MVP.
The successes of the 2024 Lynx have been outlined by contributions up and down the staff’s roster, nevertheless, particularly because the Olympic break. Guard Courtney Williams has excelled as Minnesota’s main playmaker, averaging 5.4 assists per sport; she is also taking pictures 54 % from the sphere in her final 5 video games. Ahead Alanna Smith has been simply as environment friendly, taking pictures 51.6 from the sphere and 42.9 % on 3-pointers throughout that span, whereas additionally averaging one steal and 1.4 blocks. Kayla McBride, although she’s cooled off a bit since her torrid begin to the season, continues to be making 2.9 3-pointers per contest, and she or he’s additionally been flashing her defensive chops as of late, averaging a team-high 2.4 steals because the break.
“I’ve mentioned this a number of occasions: Any certainly one of us can have 30 [points] each night time, and that’s the fantastic thing about our staff and the way unfold out our expertise is,” Collier talked about after scoring 30 herself in entrance of a house crowd that included Lynx legend Maya Moore. It’s a philosophy that Reeve tries to instill in her staff yearly, and with only a quarter of the Lynx’s regular-season video games remaining in 2024, it’s wanting prefer it’s been a hit.
Lynx shore up frontcourt depth with commerce for Hines-Allen
The Lynx have been consumers on the 2024 WNBA commerce deadline, sending guard Olivia Époupa, ahead Sika Koné and a second-round decide within the 2026 WNBA Draft to the Washington Mystics in trade for veteran ahead Myisha Hines-Allen.
Hines-Allen, an All-WNBA Second Crew honoree in 2020, was averaging eight factors and 4.7 rebounds per sport for Washington on the time of the commerce, and her addition bolsters a Lynx frontcourt that had been in want of a extra bodily presence. It didn’t take lengthy for Hines-Allen to get acclimated; in Minnesota’s most up-to-date win over the Indiana Fever, Hines-Allen performed the complete fourth quarter, incomes reward from teammates and coaches alike.
“We have been making an attempt to get breaks from guarding submit gamers, and [Myisha] is a superb defender, so it was good to have her be capable of are available and have an effect on issues straight away,” mentioned Collier after the sport. “We wanted her physicality, plain and easy,” added Reeve. “We wanted her willingness to compete within the submit and her willingness to compete for rebounds.”
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Hines-Allen’s willingness to do the soiled work has additionally opened up new lineup potentialities for the Lynx, with Collier shifting from energy ahead to small ahead and away from guarding greater, stronger gamers. It’s a possibility that Hines-Allen is grateful for, regardless of nonetheless being new to the staff. “I’ve been within the league for seven seasons. I understand how to set a display and I understand how to roll,” Hines-Allen informed native media. “It’s simply basketball on the finish of the day.”
It helps having a familiarity with Reeve and the way she needs her staff to play. Hines-Allen mentioned that there was mutual curiosity between her and the Lynx when she was a free agent in 2022, and that the Lynx at the moment run most of the similar offensive units she was accustomed to in Washington. Buying and selling for Hines-Allen was a win-now transfer for Minnesota, and the staff will likely be anticipating her to play a giant position because it fights for playoff positioning.
