It took Aerial Powers a while to get here:
Back in the starting lineup, feeling healthy, beginning to show fans why the Lynx worked so hard to sign her during the off-season.
Powers started Friday's game with Indiana at Target Center. It was her first start in her seventh game back after right thumb surgery. She scored 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting. She came off screens, she used her crossover to get into the paint. As the regular season is coming to a close, her game is finally starting to open up.
Oh, and the Lynx defeated the last-place Fever 89-72.
"The name of the game is efficiency,'' Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. "What I like is we brought her along slowly as she returned, for just this reason.''
Wednesday in Las Vegas, the Lynx lost in a defensively challenged effort that dropped them from third to fifth in the WNBA standings.
Friday? After a slow start, kick-started by their second unit, the Lynx (19-10) moved back into fourth place; they get the nod over Phoenix (also 19-10) because of winning the season series. And the Lynx are just a half-game behind No. 3 Seattle (20-10), which will play its final two games, against Los Angeles and Phoenix, without injured star Breanna Stewart.
The Lynx have two more games with Indiana and a season finale in Washington.
In an encouraging performance, the Lynx got a boost from a bench that — even without Powers — scored 27 points and was the catalyst to a 23-8 third-quarter run that put Minnesota in control. Up 16 entering the fourth quarter, the Lynx scored the first seven of the fourth quarter — all by Kayla McBride — to go up 23.
McBride had 15 points total. Center Sylvia Fowles, who became the fifth player to score 3,000 points in a Lynx uniform, had 13 points, seven rebounds, five blocks and four steals in 20-plus minutes. Natalie Achonwa had 10.
And then, Powers. Perhaps a little out of shape during a difficult training camp, she pulled her hamstring three games into the season. In her first game back, she tore a ligament in her thumb against Los Angeles. Nine-plus weeks after that she returned to action, with minutes limited, off the bench.
"I remember [against L.A.] I was feeling good. I remember I had an and-one, and I'm like, 'I'm back,' " Powers said. "And I hurt myself again. ... I decided when I got back I was going to give everything I have. That's what I'm doing.''
It was her third straight 20-point game.
Powers gives the Lynx a facet they otherwise lack, a player with the ability to create her own shot. At times that means the ball stops with her. But, as Reeve said, it used to stick with Maya Moore, too. With Powers returning to form, and McBride, the Lynx are able to space the floor and make opponents make difficult choices.
"I'm progressing at the right time,'' Powers said. "That's what you want to do.''
Back to coming off the bench, Bridget Carleton hit both her three-pointers. Rachel Banham had five points and five assists on a night when the Lynx matched their season high with 26 assists on 36 baskets made.
Powers threw a scare into the team when she fell to the court in the fourth quarter after having her foot stepped on. But she stayed in the game and said she'd be OK.
Finally.
"She's great for us,'' McBride said. "Someone who can get into the paint, the ability to rise up over people, to take contact, get to the free throw line. She opens things up for us.''
