Lynx won't panic after Game 1 loss; they've been here before
— -- MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve is an expert at analyzing her team, but this is one thing she really can't explain.
In each of their five WNBA Finals appearances, the Lynx have had the best record and been the host for the first two games. However, they've lost the opener now three times.
"Isn't that crazy?" Reeve mused. "I kind of went back and thought about it. I think each year is different, but it was surprising to me."
Los Angeles won 78-76 on Alana Beard's buzzer-beater on Sunday in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals. Even while the game was being played, the Lynx knew what their biggest problems were: turnovers and fouls. But they weren't able to satisfactorily fix those things before it was too late.
"It's two good teams going against each other," Minnesota's Maya Moore said. "We can't give up easy points in transition off their aggressive defense. It's about moment-by-moment getting the ball where we want it on offense."
Of course, the Sparks feel like they have things to clean up as well, despite winning the game.
"They're going to adjust to our pressure, for sure," L.A.'s Candace Parker said. "But we lost a lot of statistical categories, too. So this isn't just about them having to adjust to us. We have to make adjustments, too."
Now we'll see which path the series takes from here. The teams meet again at Target Center on Tuesday (ESPN2, 8 p.m. ET) and the Lynx will try to become the first team to hold court in this series in 2016. The visiting team has won all four previous meetings this season.
Sometimes, results of past seasons are irrelevant because personnel is different. But since Minnesota's core and coaching staff are the same, there is some reason to look back on those two previous Game 1 losses to see what the Lynx did then and how they responded.
In 2012, the Lynx lost Game 1 to Indiana 76-70, and turnovers cost Minnesota then, too. The Lynx bounced back and won the second game, but then lost twice at Indiana, and the Fever got the championship.
Then last year, again going against Indiana, the Lynx lost 75-69 in Game 1. Once more, turnovers were a factor, as was the Lynx's 15-of-23 shooting from the line, while the Fever went 16-for-16.
But the Lynx ended up winning the series, taking the second game behind powerful performances from Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles, and the third game on Moore's buzzer-beating 3-pointer. Indiana won Game 4, but Minnesota won the decisive fifth game basically by attrition, 69-52. The Lynx had worn out the Fever by then.
That might be a factor in this 2016 WNBA Finals, too, especially if it goes five games. Sunday, Los Angeles coach Brian Agler stuck with a seven-player rotation, while Reeve used 10 players.
"I think we'll go deeper, but [Sunday] just wasn't that time," Agler said. "It was sort of a gut feeling, and sometimes you just go with what was working. I'm sure that going forward, we'll use our eighth and ninth players a little bit more."
When the teams first met this season, on June 21 in Los Angeles, it was close throughout with the Lynx winning 72-69 on Renee Montgomery's 3-pointer with 2.9 seconds left.
Three days later in Minneapolis, the Sparks took over the fourth quarter, outscoring the Lynx 29-17 for a 94-76 victory.
They didn't play again until Sept. 6 in Los Angeles, and the Lynx were up by 10 with 35 seconds left. Game over? Not quite. The Lynx won 77-74, but a scoring surge from Sparks guard Chelsea Gray kept things uncomfortable down the stretch.
The Sparks prevailing on Sunday in Minneapolis sent the crowd home disappointed, and the Lynx players were frustrated, too. But not overly so, since they've been through this before. The Lynx don't lose a lot of games, period. But they especially don't lose much when they shoot 51 percent from the field, as they did Sunday (31 of 61).
Minnesota's Seimone Augustus said after the game, she shut off her phone -- "I didn't want to talk to anybody" -- and went home to get a good night's sleep. She knew Monday's film session wouldn't be much fun, but would help.
"You can hit the rewind button and play it again. And hit the rewind and play it again," Augustus said of reviewing mistakes the Lynx made. "It's something that we need.
"It's minor details that we've got to work out. We've got to be smarter with the passes. Just knowing that they're going to collapse on the ball. You've got to be able to handle the pressure. It's the Finals and [the Sparks] came in to win, and that's what they did. Now we've got to put the pedal to the metal."
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