LYNX 92, SKY 81: COLLIER, WILLIAMS SHINE IN PRESEASON OPENING WIN

The Minnesota Lynx took the floor to take on the Chicago Sky in their preseason opener at Target Center on Friday night, marking the first WNBA/NBA basketball eclipse we’ve had in the Twin Cities in quite some time.

Kayla McBride (rest, illness) did not play in this one after arriving midweek on the heels of finishing her overseas season with EuroLeague Champion Fenerbahçe alongside fellow Lynx star Napheesa Collier. The First Team All-WNBA did take the floor on Friday, along with another EuroLeague performer in Bridget Carleton and sophomore wing Diamond Miller, who is coming off left knee surgery in November.

Dorka Juhász, Sika Koné and Cecilia Zandalasini all remain away from the team as they fulfill their overseas contractual agreements. Since they each have less than three years of WNBA service, none of them are subject to a season-long suspension for arriving late to camp as mandated by the league’s prioritization rule. Their late arrivals probably won’t affect personnel decisions, though, as each of them are likely to make the opening day roster of 12 players.

Talented college superstars and WNBA rookies Kamilla Cardoso of South Carolina and Angel Reese of LSU made their highly anticipated league debuts for the Sky. Reese started alongside Elizabeth Williams, while Cardoso came off the bench for Chicago, who were without Isabelle Harrison (knee) and offseason acquisition Brianna Turner (knee), who was part of the return in a trade that sent 2021 WNBA Finals MVP Kahleah Copper to the Phoenix Mercury.

Let’s get into seven takeaways from the Lynx/’s 92-81 win over the Sky in their preseason opener.

1) Get Ready for an Even More Efficient Napheesa Collier

The Lynx captain was one of the best stories of the 2023 WNBA season. Collier averaged a career-high 21.5 points on 48.5/29.8/84.0 FG/3PT/FT shooting splits, 8.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.2 blocks across 37 appearances, earning her First Team All-WNBA and All-Defensive Second Team honors, and she finished fourth in MVP.

Those numbers very well could be her floor in 2024. Collier thrived in a five-out alignment, with Alanna Smith and Courtney Williams spaced to the corners, and Miller and Natisha Hiedeman playing above the break with Phee. The off-the-dribble creation from Williams combined with the spacing of capable 3-point shooters in Hiedeman, Miller and Smith created a ton of room in which Collier could work. Collier will be the heartbeat of the Lynx offense. She quarterbacked everything from atop the key, where she engaged handlers in the dribble hand-off (DHO) game, set screens in the pick-and-roll, passed to cutters back door, and everything in between. When she was in the slots, she spaced effectively for guards, set good off-ball screens, and sealed nicely in a more cleared-out paint to get looks at the basket or set up post-up chances.

“I hope it will open the paint up for me more. I mean, that’s no secret. I like to be in the post, and so, I’ve really been working hard to expand my game so that I’ll knock down those shots when I’m open and they’re available to me,” Collier told Canis Hoopus postgame.

“But it opens the court up for me because if people have to guard me close up high, I can get to my spot down low.”

Collier was everywhere in the early going, forcing an airball in help defense, grabbing an offensive rebound and hitting a cutting Smith for the game’s first score, hauling in a tough contested rebound, clearing space for Williams score in a DHO action up top, and drilling her first shot of the game. All of that took place in the first 4:03.

The three-time All-Star kept it rolling in the second quarter, scoring eight points, making all three of her shots, including an acrobatic and-one finish and a 3-pointer from the left slot to bail out a dead possession. She also had a pair of steals and a block, too. The best part? She did it all in just 5:31 of action in the second period.

Her jump shot looked as good, consistent and confident as ever, and she was in complete command of her game on both ends of the floor.

Collier was matched up with Reese on both ends, and dominated the matchup. Reese scored just six points on 1/4 shooting, recorded an assist and a turnover, and committed four fouls in the 14:10 she played in the first three quarters (Collier did not play in the fourth). Phee, meanwhile, scored a hyper-efficient 17 points on 7/9 shooting, made both of her 3-pointers, collected three rebounds, had one assist, amassed three stocks, and was a +16 in 19 minutes of action.

Pretty damn good for a player who practiced in full just once (on Thursday) during the opening week of training camp.

2) Courtney Williams Breathes New Life Into the Offense

Williams, a free agency pickup from the Sky, was everything as advertised — and more. She scored 17 points on 7/11 shooting, with most of her scores coming on mid-range looks off the dribble coming off screens or hand-off actions — a scoring element the Lynx sorely lacked last season. Adding a true scoring lead guard that can use her speed not only to support Collier as a scorer but create open shots for others is going to be a massive lift for a Lynx offense that struggled profusely to score consistently outside of Collier and McBride in 2023.

“It’s why we signed her, that’s what I told her. That’s why we paid her the big bucks. She should be in the conversation this season for one of the best guards in the league,” Lynx Head Coach and President of Basketball Operations Cheryl Reeve told Canis postgame. “She absolutely should be in that conversation, so she should be a First or Second-Team All-WNBA. She’s that good, and we want to get her back in that conversation.”

She wasted no time introducing herself to the Target Center crowd, scoring nine of the Lynx’s 13 points of the game in a variety of ways. She opened with a tough mid-range bucket, before sinking two of three free throws after drawing a shooting foul on a 3, and then added a made triple shortly after. The home crowd of over 7,000 showered her with praise heading to the first media timeout.

The 2021 All-Star punished the Sky’s deep drop coverage with her jumper, but made great reads when the defense committed to her and willingly made plays to get her teammates open looks. After passing out of a shot on the first possession of the game and turning it over, Williams went the rest of the way dishing out five dimes without turning it over.

3) Natisha Hiedeman Ready to Provide a Steady Bench Presence

The Lynx have struggled to find consistent point guard play ever since Lindsay Whalen retired in 2018, but that certainly could change in 2024. Reeve confirmed that Hiedeman will lead the bench unit this season as the backup to Williams. The former Connecticut Sun mainstay displayed exactly why the Lynx traded for her in January.

Hiedeman did an excellent job of spacing the floor, made good decisions when attacking off the catch, made an extra pass to set up and assist a wide open Carleton corner 3, and really got after it defensively with active hands and good timing. She scored eight points on 3/7 shooting, grabbed four rebounds, and recorded six assists to just two turnovers. Reeve would like to see the career 39.2% 3-point shooter get up more than three 3-pointers, but that will come.

Hiedeman and Williams — who played together in Connecticut — as a starting back-court dropped 11 dimes while committing just three turnovers, a 3.67 assist-to-turnover ratio that, if it sustains, will definitely help Reeve sleep easier at night.

“Oh man I loved it. T came in as my rookie, so I’ve known T for six plus years now. I’m excited for her to kind of get that leash off of her so you can really see what she do.” Williams said of her former and now current teammate. “Because she can go. T can really go. I’m excited that she’s about to be able to get in her bag so I’m excited for her.”

Collier echoed those sentiments.

“T has a really calming presence, which is great, obviously in a point guard. She’s really curious too. She’s one of the people who I was talking about who is asking where people like the ball, how they like to get into their actions, where they’re most successful,” she said.

“I think that’s a really good quality in a point guard. Courtney does the same thing. It’s really important when you’re at that commander spot that you know what your soldiers like to do. And so the fact that we have people taking that initiative is one of the reasons our chemistry is coming so quickly and that we were able to come out and play so well today.”

4) A “Give and Take” Kind of Night Defensively

The Lynx put forth a defensive performance you would expect to see from a team that is severely undersized without their defensive anchor in Juhász. They got out-rebounded 33-29, gave up 12 offensive rebounds for 12 second chance points, and lost the free throw attempt battle 25-17, but flew around and relied heavily upon forcing turnovers. Reeve’s group turned the Sky over 22 times and scored 20 points off of them. Outside of allowing a pair of offensive rebounds on free throws (and allowing 28 points on 9/14 shooting in the third quarter), it was a solid night given the circumstances.

Minnesota also had some defensive breakdowns centered around communication in their pick-and-roll coverages — something you expect to see this time of year when players are arriving to training camp at different times. But a nice plus was Miller looking very comfortable on that end of the floor. She held Diamond DeShields to 0 points on just one shot, communicated well on the back side of the defense and came away with a block and a steal.

Part of that comes from the Lynx generally playing drop coverage, but not strictly adhering to that scheme on Friday night. With a player as long, agile and athletic as Smith is at the center position, you will see her at times play more aggressive coverages — up at the level of the screen or even switch out on the perimeter, like we saw from Juhász last season. But Smith figuring out when and when not to be aggressive on the perimeter is something that will take time. Nonetheless, Reeve is excited about the prospect of playing Miller, Collier, Smith and Juhász switching in big, long, and athletic defensive lineups.

“Lan, like Phee, they get aggressive on the ball screens. We’re trying to make this recognition of, we’re supposed to be playing a certain scheme and let’s say we miss it and the guard comes off and [the opponent is] wide open. I don’t like [the big to] step up (in coverage)”, Reeve told Canis, referencing two plays in which the big playing at the level resulted in Sky baskets.

“If you’re Lan and you’re big like that, [switching] is going to be an easy thing to do. Not all of our personnel behind Lan (on the back side) are capable of turning [at the level coverage] into a positive. ... Dorka’s got it down. She’s not gonna step up when she shouldn’t step up,” Reeve added, saying Smith is still learning when to step up versus stay in a drop. “Lan has been really, really good. She’s a very, very trustworthy player. ... I’ve really, really enjoyed watching her and seeing her instincts.”

Collier is excited to play with Smith, especially defensively.

“I think [it’s Alanna’s] grittiness. I was so excited to get Lan because it’s so hard to play against her. I remember when she was at Chicago, she’s really strong, and she’s just a worker. She’ll get the rebounds, defend in the post, she does what she’s supposed to on offense. She’s just a smart player who knows what she’s supposed to be doing. And [she’s] reliable, which is like the most important thing,” Collier told Canis Hoopus.

“She’s definitely stronger than she looks too. I think that’s one thing where she can move positions, where we can have her guard that five player or we can move her up and we have a bigger lineup.”

5) A Tale of Two Bench Performances

Alissa Pili and Bridget Carleton both project to be in a nine-player rotation this season with Williams, McBride, Miller, Collier and Smith starting, and Hiedeman, Juhász coming off the bench before them. They checked in together as the first subs of the game, with Pili drawing a huge ovation from a home crowd ready to welcome the rookie to Target Center.

Pili, who is listed at 6-foot-2 but closer to 5-foot-11, in the first half mostly played the 4 alongside Collier and later Ruthy Hebard, tasked at first with defending the 6-foot-7 Cardoso. Offensively, Pili did a great job flowing around the perimeter into open spaces, creating windows for her teammates to find her for open 3-point shots. She also flashed her evident passing ability with some nice passes to back-door cutters, even if a couple got away from her for turnovers.

But unfortunately, the rookie went 0/6 from the floor and 0/5 from deep after making her first attempt of the game, and at times struggled with the speed of the game defensively. Pili shot 41.1% on 209 triples in her two years at Utah, so she will unquestionably shoot the ball with more success moving forward — and was good to see her get open looks — but the Lynx will need her to knock down shots at a higher clip to keep her in the rotation once the season gets going.

Carleton went home to Chatham-Kent, Ontario for a few days after concluding her overseas play for Uni Györ in Hungary and did not arrive in Minneapolis until earlier this week, so she did not get much work in practice. But it didn’t matter.

After a somewhat slow start, getting up just one shot (a made mid-range jumper) in the first half, Carleton found her stride playing alongside Hiedeman, Williams, Pili and Smith in the back half of the third quarter. The Canadian National Team wing knocked down two of her three 3-point looks, grabbed an offense rebound and came away with a steal, before draining another triple and technical free throw for good measure in the final frame.

Carleton finished with 12 points on 4/6 shooting (3/4 from deep) in 20 minutes to go along with a pair of rebounds, two assists and a turnover. That is exactly what the Lynx will need from her this season; efficient and high-volume 3-point shooting, providing some help on the glass, and moving the ball when the shot isn’t there.

If one of Pili or Carleton can become a consistent fifth scorer behind Collier, Williams, McBride and Miller, and some nights score north of 15 points, the Lynx will be in good shape offensively. Tonight it was Carleton, but Pili will certainly have her nights given how talented of a scorer she is.

6) Rotation Notes and the Fight for Roster Spots

Reeve for the most part played an 11-deep rotation with French guard Olivia Époupa, Kayana Traylor and Hebard as the initial seventh, eighth and ninth women in the first half mix. Fan favorite from training camp last year Taylor Soule also played a couple of second quarter minutes before the starters returned in a hockey line switch for the final 5:31 of the half.

The starters then opened the third quarter before Collier and Miller exited at the 4:22 mark for Pili and Carleton, respectively. Instead of Hebard (who did not play in the second half) as the third substitution, Reeve went to ex-Virginia Tech teammates Traylor and Soule, who played very well in their extended second half minutes.

Traylor, who spend time with the Lynx last season on a hardship contract, looked very comfortable in the half-court. She was explosive off the dribble, created looks at the rim, and made both of her free throws, too.

Soule really turned it on in the early part of the fourth quarter. Much like she did in last year’s preseason, the former All-ACC player at Boston College and VT took over with incredible hustle plays that helped get the Lynx to the finish line. She first made a mid-range jumper from the right slot, then got positioning inside before drawing a hard foul, and doing the same thing on the next trip, splitting her four free throws. A couple trips later, Soule won a foot race for a loose ball in the back-court and threw a perfect bounce pass to Camryn Taylor for a layup to give the Lynx a six-point lead with 6:31 to play.

“We have seen Taylor Soule, I don’t want to take her for granted. We’ve seen that, she does it every day in practice. She’s the closest thing we’ve had to Brunson in terms of, it doesn’t matter the drill, doesn’t matter what type of day, she never has a bad day when it comes to [effort and energy]. So you can really count on that from her,” Reeve said. “You can make a living in this league for a long time [doing that]. You can win rings. Brunson has five of them.”

Taylor, an energizer bunny in her own right, took the baton from there, adding three more scores inside, five rebounds, a steal and a block in her very loud 7:06 of work in the fourth quarter that leaped off the court.

“Cam Taylor I think also brought that. Cam is such a competitor. It’s what we’ve been seeing at practice. I kind of figures that if she got the moment, she would rise. She certainly didn’t do everything perfectly, but incredibly coachable.”

2024 Lynx third-round pick Kiki Jefferson played the final 2:42, while Mimi Collins and Quinesha Lockett saw a 2:08 and 1:06 of action, respectively to close things out.

Down two players that will be on the opening day roster in McBride and Juhász and two more likely to make the roster in Koné and Zandalasini, Carleton, Pili, and Traylor played the next most minutes, with Époupa and Soule close behind.

Here is a look at the full rotation:

7) A Disappointing Night for the WNBA

The WNBA did not broadcast this Lynx/Sky game in any fashion, instead choosing to focus their efforts on airing Caitlin Clark’s W debut with the Indiana Fever against the Dallas Wings. That ended up being a great game, with Arike Ogunbowale making a game-winning 3 with three seconds to play.

But it is still pretty disappointing that the league couldn’t find a way to broadcast a game that featured three rookies with massive social media followings, incredibly unique stories and backgrounds, and the talent to match. With no streaming options available, one fan took things into her own hands.

Twitter user @heyheyitsalli decided to stream the game on Twitter, holding her phone up to capture all 40 minutes of action. More than 173,000 people tuned in to watch at least a portion of the game on a pixelated Twitter broadcast with no commentary, just in-arena sounds.

The stream caught the attention of the WNBA world, including legendary point guard Sue Bird.

But it also brought to the forefront how frustrating life in the WNBA is. The fan demand for the product is growing at a rate that far exceeds the growth rate of the league’s infrastructure and available resources for things such as broadcasting preseason games, which are not included in most of the league’s television deals. Clark’s debut on Friday was the only WNBA preseason game that will be broadcast on TV or the WNBA app — a pretty crazy fact considering how the league should be doing everything they can to capitalize on a new wave of needle-moving college stars turned rookies.

The WNBA seeing the exponential growth rate of women’s college basketball viewership —largely driven by four college superstars who are now WNBA rookies in Clark, Reese, Cardoso and ex-Stanford star Cameron Brink — and not having a plan in place to capitalize on that growth is beyond crazy to me. But it shouldn’t be, because the W has a long history of dropping the ball every time it is passed to them.

“I think that what I would say is that the growth is happening so fast. It’s so accelerated. And I’ve been saying this in our own organization, that business as usual isn’t going to work anymore. You’re gonna get left behind and this is an example,” Reeve told Canis Hoopus after the game in reference to the demand for the Twitter stream.

“Pretty simply, I’ll tell you what happens in the preseason. I think we’ve been ready for this. I think we’ve talked about it. I can’t tell you, I’m not in all the business meetings. But there [has been a] thirst for [broadcasting more games]. Not just this season, even before that, I felt like. But what you have to weigh, I think what they would tell you is they have to weigh the production costs. For preseason games, maybe it’s not beneficial for everyone to do,” she continued.

“So, that’s what’s in the way, that decision of ‘Where are you going to spend your money?’ And certainly, Caitlin’s first game, they were gonna value. I’m all for that. I get it. People want to see that, but they also want to see, you know, it’s not just about Caitlin. This isn’t Caitlin’s fault in any way. It’s more, you know, the recognition that there’s general excitement about the WNBA in ways that we haven’t seen before.

“And so we have to capitalize. To really ensure that this is a movement, we have to capitalize on those things. And so we’ll learn. I think we’ll learn. Again, it’s like we say sometimes even on the court like, ‘You can’t fix everything. What’s the low hanging fruit? Let’s try to get to it.’

“Angel Reese has a pretty strong following. I thought it’d be cool if she whipped out her phone and maybe, her and Pili, like I said when I posted, maybe they stream it and we put some kind of cam on them.”

But there was a second issue on Friday night, too.

Cardoso suffered a shoulder injury with one minute to go in the first half. She remained in the locker room after halftime, and eventually emerged — still in uniform with her warmup jacket on — midway through the third quarter with Sky GM Jeff Pagliocca. But the Sky did not provide any sort of update on her injury during the game, even though there was clearly some determination made about her availability.

Imagine if that happened in the NBA. The No. 3 pick in the draft makes their preseason debut, gets hurt in a non-televised game, and the team doesn’t issue any kind of injury designation for fans presumably freaking out at home, again, unable to watch the game. People would lose their minds!

While it may seem like a small note, it goes to show how far the WNBA has to go. There needs to be better communication across the board so fans can follow their teams more closely and connect with their favorite teams and players on a deeper level.

The W is a league that very clearly has been set to explode in popularity. The signs have been there for a while now, even before this past women’s college basketball season. But the league has zero clue how to leverage the attention they are getting from the newfound starpower. Instead of using the attention brought by Clark and Co. to introduce new fans to the other 11 teams in the league, the wealth of talent that comprises the other 132 players, and grow the league as a whole, they simply provide an avenue to consume content that almost exclusively features Clark in some way. It is a short-sighted strategy that is a classic example of the WNBA trying to build the plane in the air.

We’ll see where the league goes from here, but they couldn’t make it one day in the preseason without tripping over themselves, and that’s pretty disappointing.

Up Next

The Lynx will continue practicing at Mayo Clinic Square before traveling to D.C. for their preseason finale against the Washington Mystics on Wednesday at 10:30 AM CT.

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