Monday morning musings:

-One of the reasons I like covering the Lynx is that the basketball is so often fundamentally sound and beautiful to watch, in terms of ball movement and unselfishness.

Didn't see much of that Sunday night, in the team's WNBA opener. It was ugly basketball. Maya Moore went 1-for-11 from the three-point line, and I think that altered the team's offensive flow. If Moore had made her usual quota of shots, Chicago's defense probably would have loosened and we might have seen what we usually see from the Lynx. But that didn't happen.

In the absence of excellent ball movement and shooting, the Lynx was dependent on Sylvia Fowles' inside game. And while Cheryl Reeve was rightly frustrated with Fowles' lack of defensive rebounding, Fowles' offensive game and offensive rebounding won the game.

-I was covering the Twins beat when Torii Hunter was drafted, and I covered the team extensively during Hunter's Twins' tenure. He demonstrated immediately that he would run into any wall at any speed to make a dramatic catch.

We're seeing the same attitude and skill set from Byron Buxton. If he's not the best centerfielder in the game, and he probably is, he is at least the most spectacular.

But he needs to start exercising caution.

He was just starting to hit when he ran into the wall multiple times on the last homestand. Those collisions with the Target Field wall threw him off his game and halted his progress.

The Twins still need Buxton to be an impact five-tool player. And running into fences will continue to hamper his ability to become the hitter he should be.

It's a difficult calculation for a young player. Buxton wants to command his teammates' respect, wants to help his pitchers, wants to win games with his glove. And he has. The Twins' outfield defense may be the team's most obvious strength, aside from Miguel Sano's bat.

But the Twins need him to be a middle of the lineup hitter. And if he keeps slamming into walls, his progress may continue to be slow.

-Next live show for MNSPN.com: 6 p.m. Wednesday at Hell's Kitchen it's the Russo-Souhan Show. Please stop by.

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