The Lynx strengthened their roster Thursday for the postseason by signing guard Anna Cruz. The Spanish guard averaged 8.0 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.0 assists for the Lynx last season after being acquired in an offseason trade. She appeared in all 10 playoff games, helping the Lynx to their third WNBA title in five seasons.

Cruz opted to skip the pre-Olympic portion of the WNBA schedule this season to prepare for the Olympics, where she helped Spain to a silver medal. Cruz averaged 8.5 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists while starting all eight games for Spain, and had a buzzer-beating game-winning basket against Turkey.

The move was expected, as the Lynx had been keeping their roster options open. Coach Cheryl Reeve was asked by the Star Tribune's Jim Paulsen about Cruz on Monday, and said, "Her run with the Spanish national team has taken its toll physically on her. What we've talked about is just let everybody get home, let the dust settle a little bit and see where we're at in a couple weeks."

Those "couple weeks" turned into a couple of days fairly quickly.

Reeve was an assistant coach on the USA's gold medal winning team, and Lynx players Lindsay Whalen, Seimone Augustus, Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles were on the American team.

The Lynx resume play Friday night in Connecticut before playing host to Seattle on Sunday (6 p.m., ESPN2).