Neal: Lynx preparing for Mercury team that is finally at full strength

Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve was right. Emma Meesseman picked the wrong team.

Meesseman was coveted by the Lynx as a midseason free-agent acquisition, but the 2019 WNBA Finals MVP opted to sign with the so-called super team, the New York Liberty.

The Liberty, however, were eliminated on Friday by Phoenix in the first round of the playoffs. It was a best-of-three series that went to the rubber game while the Lynx enjoyed a couple of days off after sweeping Golden State in two games.

After missing out on Meesseman, Reeve traded for DiJonai Carrington and the Lynx were better off for it. Carrington has been a perfect fit defensively and has provided more offense than expected.

Unfortunately, Carrington suffered a left foot injury Wednesday, and on Saturday night the team announced she will miss the rest of the season. She will be missed as the Lynx face a Mercury team riding high after knocking off the defending champions. The Lynx took three of four games against Phoenix during the regular season, with an average margin of 13 points in the three victories, but they haven’t faced each other since July 16, and the Mercury are a different team.

This is going to be a tougher matchup than the Liberty.

“They haven’t seen us at full strength,” forward Alyssa Thomas said. “We’re ready to play.”

Thomas is a forward but runs the show, averaging 15.4 points, 8.8 rebounds and 9.2 assists during the regular season. Who will draw this assignment? I presume it will be Napheesa Collier, making this a battle of MVP finalists. They did guard each other at times during the regular season, but it will depend on who else is on the floor. And Reeve might have something else in mind.

Copper, Phoenix’s second-leading scorer during the regular season at 15.6 points per game, is going to be a handful. And Sabally is tough in the post and can make three-pointers. Bonner, a six-time All-Star, comes off the bench but will be on the floor at crunch time.

The Lynx had figured out how to beat New York, and they wanted revenge after losing to them in last year’s WNBA Finals. Courtney Williams made it clear multiple times during the regular season that she didn’t like the Liberty. Can she invent a reason to hate Phoenix?

While six other WNBA playoff teams were preparing to enter the crucible of a win-or-pack-for-the-offseason Game 3, the Lynx rested following their sweep of Golden State. They flew home from San Jose, Calif., on Thursday for a well-deserved day off. On Friday they headed to Mayo Clinic Square to prepare for an opponent that, at the time, they didn’t know. So instead of going through scouting reports, they went through a few drills.

Since they had some time on their hands, hopefully the Lynx used it to address some things.

Hopefully Reeve drilled down on the importance of landing the first punch against Phoenix — and keep punching.

Williams grabbed nine rebounds and had 11 assists in the two games against the Valkyries, but she shot 7-of-19 from the floor and scored only six points in Game 2. Natisha Hiedeman, who on Saturday finished second to Atlanta’s Naz Hillmon for WNBA Sixth Player of the Year honors, logged 26 minutes in the games, several with Williams on the bench.

When Williams is getting buckets, the Lynx are hard to beat. It’s imperative that she gets her midrange game going as the games get bigger. Williams averaged 12.5 points, six rebounds and 5.5 assists against the Mercury doing the regular season.

And while they spent time on skill development once they returned, hopefully Bridget Carleton kept her shooting stroke sharp. Before the Lynx rallied in the fourth quarter Wednesday, they were able to tread water in the third.

Carleton, who hasn’t shot as well from the field as a year ago, buried two three-pointers for the Lynx’s first points of the second half and made two more later in the game to contribute to the comeback. If she wants to revert back to last year, when she made 44.4% of her three-pointers, this would be a good time to do so.