There really was no other choice, Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said.
Her team entered Thursday's game against Dallas at Target Center two games under .500, having lost three in a row and were coming off a stretch of six of eight games on the road.
Back home for a four-game homestand — the longest of the season — Reeve looked at it as a season-defining stretch. Those losses? Forget about them. Road weary? Rest up.
"We didn't have a choice," Reeve said. "Whatever they may have been feeling, in terms of six out of eight, being tired, being mentally beat up a little bit, whatever they were feeling they had to put aside."
This was a good start: an 86-70 victory over Dallas. Minnesota started the first quarter on a 12-3 run, the second on a 11-0 run and the third on a 11-3 spurt, building a 23-point lead.
On a night when Minnesota's Napheesa Collier made another strong bid for Rookie of the Year over Dallas' Arike Ogumbowale (more on that later), the Lynx started their season-defining homestand with an impressive victory.
"This is pretty much make or break us," said center Sylvia Fowles (12 points), one of four Lynx starters in double figures. "We were going to show up."
Put back into the starting lineup, guard Danielle Robinson drew the duty of slowing Ogunbowale. The Lynx game plan also had a big — usually Damiris Dantas — help trap the Dallas guard whenever possible.
