Lynx begin WNBA playoffs as dominant league champions, but window could be closing

Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve has said she doesn’t “want this to end.”

This is about to end.

Since July 17, 2024, the Lynx have been the dominant team in the WNBA. They are 48-12 in the regular season since that date, and they might have won the league title last year if not for a handful of questionable calls in the WNBA Finals.

They have dominated not because of overwhelming talent or athletic ability, but by playing basketball a purist can love, featuring crisp ball movement, unselfishness, cohesive defense and plenty of mental toughness.

As the Lynx begin the playoffs on Sunday against Golden State at Target Center, the most endearing group of professional athletes we’ve encountered in Minnesota in years is getting one more chance to win it all, together, before reality scatters these players to the far corners of the league.

“You don’t want to leave these people,” Lynx star Napheesa Collier said. “You never know what teams look like from year to year. You know, everything is up in the air. We have two expansion teams. We have — we don’t even know what’s going to be happening with the season next year. The future is unknown.

“All that we know is that we have these games left with each other, and so we need to make the best of it and make sure that we are seeing each other as long as possible.”

The Lynx will lose players in the expansion draft. And eventually the Lynx will need to draft and keep young players who could earn playing time.

Two seasons of dominance and unity could add up to the Lynx’s first title since 2017, or another devastating playoff loss.

“That’s something we’re thinking about, going into the playoffs this year — it didn’t end the way we wanted it to," Collier said. “To have a different outcome, you need to approach it differently. We’re super excited for the playoffs to start to show everything we’ve been working on the whole year.

“There’s not a better group of people that I want to do it with. I mean, these people, it’s like we’re sisters at this point, the closeness. We’ve talked about this for two years. I mean, the way that we go to work for each other, I’ve never been on a team like this, so I wouldn’t want to do it with anybody else.”

So often in pro sports, “team unity” is more of a marketing concept than a reality. The way this group plays together has imbued the phrase with meaning.

Instead, they have vowed to play for each other, to honor what they have built, which is the best team in the most talent-saturated pro sports league in the world.

“This core group just completed winning 64 games in two seasons,” Reeve said. ”That’s pretty enormous. Sometimes I make them feel like they’re not very good, so it was a good time to tell them they’ve done great things. …

“The way we stepped up for each other, it’s a special group. They really enjoy being around each other. They have that special playing for-and-with each other mindset. It’s not lost on me how special this is. I don’t care what happens from here, you can’t take away how special this group is. I’m hopeful, for them, that they get to experience many more highs in the coming weeks.”

The road to a championship resembles Interstate 94 during construction season.

In the first round, the Lynx will face Golden State, an expansion team that can’t match the Lynx’s quality, but that plays physically and is well-coached.

In the Finals, the Lynx could face the hottest team in sports. The Las Vegas Aces, who won the title in 2022 and ’23, won their final 16 regular-season games after the Lynx defeated them by 53 points on Aug. 2.

Thursday night, during the regular-season finale, the current team was reminded of the legends they are following. Hall of Fame center Sylvia Fowles was in attendance. Hall of Fame point guard Lindsay Whalen and could-be-Hall of Famer Rebekkah Brunson are Lynx assistant coaches.

They were joined by two other Hall of Famers and No. 1 overall picks: Maya Moore and Seimone Augustus.

The current Lynx team can’t match the sheer star power and talent of the four championship teams. What has happened the past two seasons at Target Center is unique — a team winning because of one future Hall of Fame player, a future Hall of Fame coach and skilled players willing to accept hard coaching.

Asked how her team is motivating itself, Reeve said, “They’re all presenting differently. For some of them it was just the amount of work they put in in the offseason so they could have the best season of their careers.