Shortly after the Minnesota Lynx’s 72-53 victory over the Golden State Valkyries, I asked Cheryl Reeve how proud she was of the Lynx after they finished 34-10.
“They just completed winning 64 games in two seasons, that’s pretty darn impressive,” he said, “and sometimes I make them feel like they’re not very good.
“So it was a good time to tell them we actually have done great things,” she continued. “It’s really fun to be around as a coach. It’s not lost on me how special – I don’t care what happens from here, you cannot take away how special this group is. I’m hopeful for them [that] they get to experience many more highs in the coming weeks.”
Reeve is correct in highlighting the great things the Lynx have done this season. The list includes Napheesa Collier, who recorded a 50/40/90 season, becoming the second player in WNBA history to shoot 50% from the field, 40% from three-point range, and 90% from the free throw line, and the first to do so while averaging over 20 points per game.
It makes her just the 11th professional basketball player, male or female, to achieve such efficiency. The Lynx also as a team finished the season leading the WNBA in offensive, defensive, and net rating, while also leading the WNBA in assist-to-turnover ratio and finishing second in true shooting percentage. A season that will go down in the history books.
While the regular season accomplishments reflect a team that was on a mission to dominate the WNBA landscape, their true revenge tour doesn’t start until the playoffs top off at noon Central against the eighth-seed Valkyries.
Golden State did the unthinkable. In their first season as a professional franchise, they made the playoffs, finishing with a 23-21 record. The Valkaries consisted of expansion draft players who were not protected by their former teams. As a result, they had a scrappy group made up of players eager to prove their worth.
The Valkyries aren’t among the best statistical teams in the league. Their 101.5 offensive rating ranked 10th out of 13 in the WNBA. Their net rating of 1.7 was eighth, and reflective of their playoff seeding. Golden State finished with a 1.31 assist-to-turnover ratio, which also finished tenth, and their 53.1% true shooting was good for ninth. They also played at the slowest pace in the WNBA, averaging just 76.29 game possessions per 40 minutes.
However, digging deeper, the Valkyries win games exactly how you would think a team of sixth-woman caliber players would. Their defense is ranked third in the WNBA with a 99.8 rating. Golden State is the fourth-best rebounding team in the WNBA, pulling down 70.6% of defensive rebounding opportunities and 31.3% of available offensive rebounds (both rank 4th). They lead the league in protecting the paint, only allowing 29.0 points per game in that area.
Golden State’s defense allows the lowest field goal percentage against them at just 40.5%, 1.8% better than the second-ranked Lynx. They also shoot a ton of threes, leading the WNBA with 45.8% of their shot attempts being from beyond the arc. Unfortunately, they only make them at a 32.5% clip, ranking 11th.
The Valkyrie hustle and win games on the margins. Even when leading scorer Kayla Thornton went down injured for the season, Golden State’s style and production remained the same. It’s a big reason their head coach, Natalie Nakase, is in the running for coach of the year.
Minnesota’s first-round series against Golden State is the first step in their true goal of winning a championship. It’s hard to find edges where the Valkyries will be able to exploit a Lynx team that has been dominant this season.
In the season finale, the Lynx flexed their muscles by holding the Valkyries to 53, the fewest points a team has scored against them this season. They held them to just eight points in the first quarter and, outside of a couple runs in the second half, dominated the game from whistle to whistle.
The Lynx will enter the series as a tight-knit group, boasting three All-Stars, an MVP candidate, the likely Defensive Player of the Year, and improved depth compared to their championship run a year ago. It’s a group that should experience the highs of success throughout the playoffs on their revenge tour. However, the Valkyries have shown they can punch well above their weight class, and Round 1 is only a best-of-three series.
