NEW YORK — Minnesota was a surprise last season, making the postseason after a slow start. The Lynx haven’t put themselves in an early hole this year and sit near the top of the WNBA standings.
The Lynx (14-4), who lost their first six games last season, showed they are a title contender this year by winning the Commissioner’s Cup for the first time, defeating the New York Liberty last week. And leading the way is former UConn star Napheesa Collier, the MVP of the recent Commissioners Cup who leads the Lynx with an impressive 20.9 points and 10.4 rebounds per game.
“You got to talk about us now,” Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said after the victory. “We don’t really care what you think, except for right now, when we get to say to you, “You’ve got to talk about us.”
Minnesota has mixed in some really talented new players this season including Courtney Williams and Alanna Smithto a solid returning group. Then, of course, coming off the bench is another former Husky, Dorka Juhasz, who is averaging 5.5 points and 3.6 rebounds in playing 15.6 minutes per game.
“Luckily we’ve been healthy, knock on wood, we just have a really good group of vets,” Lynx guard Bridget Carleton said. “We trust each other, we believe in each other.”
Winning championships is nothing new for Minnesota, which was the team of the last decade, winning four titles from 2011-2017.
“We have a lot of offensive threats, but on defense we’re solid,” Collier said. “That’s why it’s so hard to play against us. Our aggressiveness, our willingness to sell out on anything (because) we have each other’s backs.”
Latest poll: New York remains in the top spot in this week’s AP WNBA power poll with Minnesota second. Las Vegas, Connecticut and Seattle followed the Lynx. Indiana, Phoenix and Atlanta were the next three. Chicago, Washington, Dallas and Los Angeles rounded out the poll.
More former UConn news: Aaliyah Edwards had a good week after returning from a back injury. She averaged 6.5 points and 5.5 rebounds in two losses. Another former UConn star, she also was named to the Canadian Olympic team on Tuesday. … Breanna Stewart, meanwhile, became the fastest player to reach 5,000 career points, doing it one game quicker than Diana Taurasi did. Stewart achieved the mark in her 242nd game.
“I think it’s a cool honor for sure,” Stewart said. “When you’re able to pass someone like (Taurasi) who’s really paving the way with scoring and all of that, it’s an incredible honor and something I’ll definitely text her about.”
Game of the week: Connecticut at Minnesota, Thursday. Two of the top teams in the league meet for the second time this season. The Sun won the first meeting in overtime.
