The Lynx have started their season 3-0, and are carrying a 20-game win streak in
the month of May since 2012. Connecticut is coming off two, hard-fought, close
games that resulted in losses and still looking to work out some early season
kinks.
Here are five things you need to know about their prime-time matchup (8PM ET,
ESPN2). BUY TICKETS
1. Sylvia Fowles
Sylvia Fowles has earned Player of the Week honors for her standout performances
in the first week of the season. She is averaging a double-double so far this
season with 21.7 points and 10 rebounds per game. She is a traditional center
and likes to work in the paint, opening the floor for the guards and giving them
room to work.
“That’s great for us, because teams have to pay attention to her,” Maya Moore
said.
Fowles has added many dimensions to the Lynx on offense as she excels when
running pick and rolls, and defensively, she’s been contributing by blocking and
rebounding shots.
“That’s one reason my assists are going up, is because I’m getting it to an open
post player who’s by the rim,” Moore said. “She gives us energy, she wants to
get and one’s, she’s starting to finish through the contact more and more.”
2. Jonquel Jones
Jonquel Jones has been voted the player most likely to have a breakout season as
per the WNBA GM survey results. Jones has been off to a hot start averaging 13.5
points and 16 rebounds per game. Rebounding has been Jones’ bread and butter
since she was in college at Clemson and George Washington, but her offensive
game has grown since last season which she attributes to getting more reps and
playing overseas in Korea during the offseason.
“I think it helped out a lot, being able to make strong finishes in the post,”
Jones said. “I think I struggled with that last season coming out of the college
game and coming into the league where everybody’s big, everybody’s skilled,
everybody’s talented.”
“I definitely got in the weight room a lot, it’s physical play so I think Korea
helped out a lot in terms of that,” she said.
She’s tough to defend because she plays an inside-outside game, and Curt Miller
gives her the freedom to play both roles.
“I’m happy that they trust me to be able to go out and make plays, I just want
to be able to help my team on the defensive end.” Jones said.
The Fowles-Jones matchup will be fun to watch.
“She’s doing great now, ya’ll haven’t seen nothing yet,” her teammate Alex
Bentley said.
3. The Lynx early season success starts in training camp
Maya Moore credits the professionalism in training camp with consistent early
season success. The squad takes the short time they have together before the
season very seriously.
“I think you’re seeing an overflow in the quality of training camp that we
have,” Moore said. “We’re just excited to have some games and so we show that
when we’re playing on the court with our energy and focus on execution from the
start.”
Impressive would be an understatement when talking about their May winning
streak that sits at 20. (5-0 in 2012, 6-0 in 2014, 6-0 in 2016, 3-0 in 2017) The
team is happy about the success, but they’re continually fine tuning their
craft.
“We’re 3-0, but compared to some of our other starts in other years, we’re not
quite as sharp in who we want to be yet,” Moore said. “We’ve been winning games,
but I still there’s a long way for us to go, cleaning up things defensively and
be even more efficient offensively.”
The Lynx are always striving, never fully satisfied and that’s what makes them
so great.
4. Connecticut is relentless on both ends of the floor
Minnesota had six regular season losses last year and two of those were to
Connecticut. The Sun are tough and scrappy, if they are struggling on offense
they will pick up their defense to try to get back in the game. If their shots
don’t fall, Jones will be there to clean up the boards.
Renee Montgomery mentioned teams like this are tough to play against because
they will always try to find a way to win, it’s important to come prepared from
the tip.
“It doesn’t matter whether they’re up ten or down ten, they are just going to
play hard at all times,” Montgomery said. “You can’t go on a run and expect them
to fold, they’re always going to keep fighting.”
5. The game will come down to the last three minutes
Curt Miller tells his Sun team this all the time. The Sun have had a tough start
to the season, losing a pair of close games, and Alex Bentley hinted at the fact
that they didn’t execute or makes stops down the stretch.
“We’ve been beating ourselves the last couple games, honestly,” she said.
“Things we could have executed better, we didn’t, stops we could’ve gotten, we
didn’t.”
They’ve been in close games, and given that tomorrow could be another one, they
have learned from the last two games and are using that going forward. They beat
the Lynx twice last season so they know what it takes to beat this team.
“We’re confident going into tomorrow as well, our coaching staff is amazing. All
we have to do is execute, focus on the game plan and if we do that as we did
last year, I’m pretty confident in our team being able to get a ‘W’,” Bentley
said.
