What happened to Lynx? New attitude, good health

The Lynx just couldn't win.

One frustrating summer after another, they struggled for victories and attention, despite changing coaches and drafting marquee names. There were two short playoff appearances in 12 years, but seasons of promise mostly fizzled out.

Until this year.

Sunday night, a season after finishing with one of the worst records in the league, the Lynx will play Game 1 of the WNBA Finals at Target Center. A crowd of more than 15,000 is expected to greet a team that finished with a league-best 27-7 record and won its first two playoff series.

What happened?

Nothing but good things.

The Lynx won the draft lottery and selected the most decorated athlete in women's college history, Maya Moore. Coach Cheryl Reeve quietly added well-traveled 40-year-old center Taj McWilliams-Franklin. Returning starters Seimone Augustus, Rebekkah Brunson and Lindsay Whalen, all frustrated with the losing ways, recommitted themselves. And for once, everyone stayed healthy.

It has been quite a turnaround.

Reeve won two league titles as an assistant with the Detroit Shock. So a 13-21 record in her first season with Lynx did not sit well. The losses grated on her, too.

"Just irritable," she described herself. "You could be short. You don't laugh as much or smile as much. Food doesn't taste as good. All that stuff."

The food tasted better this season.

The factors

The result was a 14-victory improvement, second best in league history. The Lynx came within one win of tying the WNBA single-season record for victories.

Reeve promised to treat the Lynx's final few games, which had no bearing on seeding, like meaningless NFL exhibitions. Yet the Lynx never went on cruise control. They closed 9-1, unable to tone down even slightly their competitive juices.

In the last regular-season home game, Reeve became irritated when a foul wasn't called on a Chicago player. She had to be restrained from going onto the court by 6-10 assistant coach Jim Petersen, a former NBA forward.

She cared about the outcome and about protecting one of her players. The players, in turn, appreciated her outburst.

Playing to win

"We wanted to be sharp for the playoffs," Whalen said.

Moore and McWilliams-Franklin, each in her own way, kept their teammates sharp, starting with last spring's training camp.

Augustus, the longest-suffering Lynx player, said everyone had to practice hard and hustle to keep up with Moore. The 6-foot forward played on two NCAA championship teams at Connecticut coached by Geno Auriemma.

"Coach Auriemma would always emphasize how important practice is," Moore said, "and how you can judge how a team is going to play by the quality of their practice. Coach Reeve has the same approach."

Moore's intensity and energy in practice carries over to games. She is usually the first player down the court on fast breaks. She pursues balls going out of bounds with zest.

The league's rookie of the year has done that consistently. She made six three-pointers -- for the third time this season -- as the Lynx beat the Mercury in Phoenix last Sunday to close out the conference finals.

"What I have here is very similar to what I had in college as far as being surrounded by great players," Moore said. "My sophomore year when we won our first national championship, I had two All-Americans with me.

"I came to [Minnesota] at a great time when people were hungry and just ready to go."

No envy

Moore, because of her college superstardom, got more than her share of attention. The Maya-Maya-Maya clamor -- cameras and especially ESPN seem to have a love affair with the eloquent, smooth-talking Moore -- never caused jealously among her teammates, some of them proven stars both in the WNBA and in Europe, where many players make the bulk of their money from October to April.

McWilliams-Franklin, a mother of three, wouldn't stand for any if there were. She also makes sure players lift weights and shoot on off-days, and offers young players tips on caring for their bodies.

"She is one of the leaders on the team," Augustus said, "but she talks to us like a mother. So we are like, 'OK, Taj.' We pay attention when she speaks."

"And she is one of the healthiest players in the league. Still with Taj, you kind of feel sorry for her. She is 40 years old and she has to play with these young guns and she handles her own."

Or outplays opponents nearly half her age. In the series clincher against Phoenix, McWilliams-Franklin had a season-high 21 points, seven assists and six rebounds.

"To see her go against Candice Dupree and DeWanna Bonner [of the Mercury] and destroy them was like, 'Wow. What is going on right now?'" Augustus said.

What is going on?

A complete image change. The "L" in Lynx no longer stands for loser.

Even skeptics had to be shaken by two midseason games, four days apart, against San Antonio. Whalen hit a baseline jumper with 1.5 seconds left to win the first game in San Antonio on July 31. McWilliams-Franklin won the second game on a basket at Target Center with 1.3 seconds. The two dramatic victories the same week were very un-Lynx like -- they had three buzzer-beating victories in their history until that week.

Augustus has evolved into a defensive force. She held Silver Stars guard Becky Hammon, on the verge of reaching the 5,000-point milestone, to 1-for-20 shooting in two late August games.

Whalen, a local hero since leading the Gophers to the NCAA women's Final Four in 2004, shot a career-high 40.4 percent on three-pointers. And Brunson started the season with a league record-tying six double-doubles and finished third in the WNBA in rebounding.

Of the team's lack of injuries, trainer Chuck Barta said, "You don't think you are ever going to see that."

Some longtime Lynx fans are saying the same thing about this magical season.