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| Maya Moore drives to the basket during Friday’s game at Madison Square Garden. Photograph: Joel Plummer/ZUMA Press/Corbis |
But it is universal: the Lynx are performing short both the standard the team itself set since 2011, also known as the Maya Moore Era. And the Lynx weren’t merely supposed to excel in 2015, but dominate after a midseason trade brought star center Sylvia Fowles to town.
A 19-9 record looks less glamorous in the franchise index, considering the Lynx have never lost as many as 10 games with Moore. A 7-6 mark since Fowles came to town put the Lynx superteam talk on hold, even more following an 81-68 loss to the Liberty Friday in which the Lynx never really challenged late.
Even the MVP campaign of Moore, fourth in the league in Player Efficiency Rating at 25.5 and ninth in the league un Defensive Rating, has been filled with questions over an uncharacteristic drop in her shooting percentage.
So while the Lynx have an undeniable collection of elite talent – Moore and Fowles only begin the list of Olympians on the roster, from Lindsay Whalen to Seimone Augustus, Rebekkah Brunson to Asjha Jones, a full majority of the team USA Basketball veterans – turning a champion on paper into a force within a hugely competitive league hasn’t been simple.
And remember, too, the new combination of talent means the Lynx are trying to win differently: the offensive force with solid defense is morphing into a team that wins defensively with just enough offense instead.
“We are different,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said, standing at midcourt an hour before Friday night’s showdown. “A big part of our offense came through elbow actions. And my starting post players now, it’s not really their forte. So we look a little different, and certain lineups, we look a certain way, and we sub and look another way.
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“It’s different, and four of my nine rotation players haven’t been Lynx before. This is a bigger picture for us than people realize. There’s years past, you can’t help measuring us against past years. Luckily, our players realize our measuring stick is this season, against the other teams in the league, right now.”
The changing cast, emphasized by the three-team deal that brought Fowles to the Lynx, is reflected in the team emphases. The DRating of 95.9 for the Lynx is 2015 is second in the league, trailing only the Liberty, who are playing at a historic pace. But the ORating is 101.6, just fourth in the league and well off the pace of either Lynx WNBA championship teams from 2011 or 2013.
“If our offense isn’t going to be as high-powered, than our defense has to be better than it’s been,” Reeve said it simply.
So the statistical benchmarks have changed. The Lynx are grabbing 76.8% of the available defensive rebounds, good for second in the league, and easily the best mark for the Lynx since Moore entered the league. A lot of that happened before Fowles, the second-best defensive rebounder in the history of the league. And yet, for Reeve, that emphasis needs to intensify over the final few games of the regular season and playoffs.
“Efficiency on offense is down,” Reeve said. “We’re turning the ball over too much. Our field goal percentage is down. So now we’re in transition defense a lot. And that’s creating problems for us at the other end. And quite frankly, that’s creating frustration, a lack of focus on finishing plays.”
The personification of that drop in field goal percentage – which, again, has cratered the Lynx all the way down to ... second-best in the league – is Moore, whose field goal percentage dropped from 48.1% last year to just 41.9% this year entering Friday’s game. It’s otherwise been a vintage Moore season. The reigning MVP is actually defending at a career-best rate, with a DRating of 93, while all her other rate stats are stable. Moore even captured the all star game MVP last month, scoring 30 in the win. But the shots simply aren’t falling the way they have in the past, and Moore has a pretty good idea why.
“The way I get my shots happens before I touch the ball,” Moore said. “And it’s a great mindset for me to have, and it’s the way I was taught to play basketball. You do a lot of cutting and screening, and you get easier shots. So that doesn’t necessarily come to pass when I’m catching in tough spots, or trying to create myself a lot more.”
Put another way, teammates more familiar with what Moore likes and where she’s going at any moment will help find her more easily. But that takes time.
It didn’t happen much on Friday night. Moore shot 8-for-20, mostly on shots she created herself, with hands in her face. If this were simply the result of facing the Liberty, it would be one thing. But Reeve pointed out this has become the new normal for her team.
Unsurprisingly, the need for more consistent, effortless communication on the offensive end carries over to defense, where conversation between teammates is central to any defensive unit.
“Getting everybody connected is our main issue on defense,” Moore said. “To make sure everybody’s defensive instincts are together.”
Moore, though, is the best she’s ever been at that end, to the point that Reeve has been working with her to figure out ways she can conserve energy on defensive tactics that don’t ultimately benefit the team as much – Reeve pointed out Moore’s charging to meet her opponent at midcourt, giving her that much more ground to cover without appreciably changing the task of the offensive team, or extra gambling for steals.
So what exactly does it look like when these Minnesota Lynx, not the championship teams of the recent past, reach their potential?
“These guys know when it feels good,” Reeve said. “When you’re moving in sync. We have a lot of possessions where we have maybe two players over here, and then these three over here,” and Reeve gestured toward the front court, “one over here, the other on top of the other one, and there’s not a recognition of, you’ve got to move jointly. And it’s the same on defense.”
That’s asking a lot of any team – again, forgetting that this is a Lynx team that’s clinched a playoff berth already and has the inside track on home court advantage throughout the playoffs through all the challenges – and Reeve sees approximately two weeks left to figure out the rest.
“By the time the playoffs start – we play September 11, and how we feel at the end of that game is going to determine a lot,” Reeve said. “So we have a six-game season. That’s how we look at it. And this is game 1, getting that rhythm. It’s going to be hard to do.
“And this team needs some signature wins, where we can say ‘Oh, that was hard.’ Because sometimes when you win, and people talk about you in a certain way, you start believing that it isn’t hard. And it’s always been hard to win games in this league. It was never easy for us, and I think some of that has crept in for us.”
So Reeve shifted some tactics, “change course” as she put it. Even with the best record in the West. Because to her, the Lynx are not a championship team the way they are going.
“Because staying the course wasn’t working. And some of it is a mindset, not Xs and Os. I’d say more than half of it is a mindset. And I’ll know when they get it. The outside thinks whatever, that we should win every game. And we know we have a little ways to go. And we’re going to work hard to get there. I think we can. We have great leaders.”
The leader among leaders, Moore, echoed Reeve. She said she is certain she and her teammates have figured out what is necessary to be “as great as we know we can be.” There’s still plenty of season left.
“Being great every year is a challenge,” Moore said, “And it’s a challenge we haven’t lost yet.”
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