Jim Souhan: Lynx strut stuff, showing just how dominant a team can be

Glen Taylor hasn't had a month this good since those peaceful days, in 2004, before Latrell Sprewell muttered something about the need to feed his family.

Last week, Taylor made Rick Adelman the coach of the Timberwolves. That might qualify as the best hire in franchise history, with Crunch running a distant second.

On Tuesday, Taylor watched from his court-side seat as his other basketball team, the Lynx, earned its first playoff-series victory.

Then, on Thursday, he got to watch the most dominant playoff performance by a Minnesota basketball team since Kevin Garnett was jumping onto scorers' tables.

The Lynx beat the Phoenix Mercury 95-67 at Target Center, for the first time in four playoff games this season demonstrating just how dominant this team could and should be.

That's 95 points in 40 minutes for a team that doesn't benefit from the automatic baskets known as dunks. It's hard to score 95 points in 40 minutes in a layup line. The Lynx did it in its first appearance in the Western Conference finals.

"When you're playing against a team that allows you to shoot over 50 percent, that can happen," said post Rebekkah Brunson. "You look at this team, we have a lot of offensive threats, and we have a lot of people who are capable of scoring if you let us get into our stuff. And Seimone is pretty good."

With former UConn star Rebecca Lobo working as a court-side analyst, more recent UConn star Maya Moore dominated the first quarter for the Lynx, scoring 13 points while hitting two three-pointers and a twisting, lefthanded, three-point play.

Having contributed energy and defense Tuesday, guard Candice Wiggins set her feet behind the arc and hit four three-pointers Thursday, making Phoenix pay when its defenders hedged toward Augustus or Moore.

"This team, we're turned up," Wiggins said. "We're turned up another notch, and this is the time to do it. Who would have known that Phoenix would score 60-some points? They're a great team."

That's kind of her to say, but Thursday proved that there's only one team that should feel obligated to win the WNBA championship this fall, and -- stop me if you haven't heard this one before -- it's the team that plays at Target Center.

The Lynx won with such ease Thursday that coach Cheryl Reeve was able to empty her bench, resting her best players in anticipation of Game 2 Sunday. A victory then puts the Lynx in the WNBA championship series for the first time.

Phoenix star Diana Taurasi and Moore played for Auriemma, but neither could match Augustus, the former No. 1 pick from LSU who looks much like she did when she played at Williams Arena as a college standout.

Augustus combines the herky-jerky movements and flowing shot of a born scorer and is learning to make defenses pay for crowding her.

"Most of her seven assists were to me, so I'm really happy about that," said post Taj McWilliams-Frankin. "Really, Seimone is just an all-around great player, and as she develops and trusts the other parts of her game, you're going to see more than seven.

"You're going to see double-doubles with rebounds and double-doubles with assists. Her height combined with her ball-handling, that's a potent offensive machine. She can do whatever she likes, and that favors us."

As strange as this might sound, the home team in the Target Center has no excuse for not winning it all, now that Augustus has realized how good she can be.