Cheryl Reeve questioned the effort, passion and will of the Lynx on Saturday.

Back at practice Monday, the coach and her staff went about the business of trying to figure out if the team had the collective gumption to get a 1-6 start to the season turning the other way.

“No one can walk into a gym and watch us over the last seven games and go, 'Boy, Minnesota really wants to do this on defense.' Because we don't do anything well”
Cheryl Reeve

After Saturday's loss in Dallas — one in which the Wings scored 36 points in 18 possessions while outscoring the Lynx 36-19 in the third quarter — Reeve issued her questions.

"That's what we're trying to find out,'' Reeve said Monday. "That's what we said: 'Hey, if you don't have it, it's really going to show itself and you're probably not going to have a job.' People lost their jobs when they don't do their job. That's just how it works. They're not trying for things to not go well. We're not understanding the impact of our lack of passion for what we're doing.''

The kinds of problems what have plagued the Lynx early in the season cannot be fixed in a day. Not surprisingly, the focus of Monday's practice was defense.

The Lynx are last in the WNBA in defensive rating (108.7), 10th in opponents' points off turnovers (19.7) and last in opponents' second-chance points (12.9).

That's the kind of trifecta that can cause problems. For the Lynx, in at least five of their six losses, the team has lost mainly because of one disastrous quarter. In the opener, Seattle had a 34-14 quarter. Against Washington, the Mystics outscored the Lynx 23-4 in the second. At Indiana it was a 36-18 Fever run in the second quarter. Las Vegas scored 28 points in the second quarter last week. And on Saturday there was Dallas, which managed a 200 offensive rating in the third.

"Eighteen possessions, 36 points,'' Reeve said. "I mean, you're kidding me, right? Indiana, second quarter, a defensive rating for us of 180, 147 to Las Vegas. The number of times we've given up that level of just falling apart. That's what we're working on. That's what we're hoping to do better with.''

Kayla McBride couldn't agree more.

"You can't coach effort, we know that,'' the guard said. "But the passion and the competitiveness and not being afraid to make mistake, having each other's backs and having that trust, that starts on the defensive end.

"That passion has always been what the Lynx have been about the last decade. We don't want to be the one team that doesn't bring that passion.''

The biggest problem? Statistically, it's transition defense, following the defensive scheme in the halfcourt and rebounding. In Dallas on Saturday, the Wings turned six offensive rebounds into 12 points in that decisive third quarter.

"We're so pedestrian in so many elements of what we do,'' Reeve said. "We're just out there. And you can't win like that.''

Reeve said individually she sees players who are passionate about what they do. But she doesn't see players playing passionately together. A big part of that is trust — in their teammates to do what's right, in the scheme the players are given.

"No one can walk into a gym and watch us over the last seven games and go, 'Boy, Minnesota really wants to do this on defense.' Because we don't do anything well.''

So Monday, the Lynx worked to find that trust. They will have an opportunity for more work. They play host to New York on Tuesday, then don't play again until Sunday.

"We have to be better [against New York],'' Aerial Powers said. "We have to have more effort. That's it.''