Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve had goals when she built the team’s roster this past offseason: add depth, particularly at point guard, and add players who can pressure the ball, hawk the ball, on defense.
“But until you get in the trenches, until you start playing, you don’t now how it’s going to turn out,” she said.
Pretty well, at least so far.
Wednesday night’s wire-to-wire 86-62 victory over the Sparks in Los Angeles was the Lynx’s third consecutive win, improved their record to 7-2 and gave the team its best start since it began the 2017 season 9-0. Reeve earned her 307th regular-season victory, moving her past Bill Laimbeer into second place on the WNBA’s all-time list.
The Lynx have developed a formula and a strong chemistry. The formula is to defend like heck and play unselfish on the offensive end. Both take chemistry. Reeve and the players insisted that cannot be overstated. And it’s been there, Reeve said, since the start of training camp.
“It was like that,’’ Reeve said, snapping he finger. “Particularly on the defensive side of it.’’
Every number speaks to that.
The Lynx, the WNBA leaders in steals, got another eight Wednesday. The second-highest-rated defensive team in the league held the Sparks to 62 points, 20 field goals and 26.0% shooting, all season lows for a Lynx opponent. And that’s saying something, considering five of Minnesota’s first nine opponents have shot under 40%.