#-1: Lynx: (Last Week: -2). These ladies are 9-16, a winning percentage of 36%. And yet they won both their games this week to top the WMNSS. Necessary too -- they now site a half-game in front of Los Angeles for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
It's a very telling symptom of a talented but unmotivated squad: They play or down to the level of their competition. In the Lynx's case, look to the three games they've played against the Seattle Bing, who are lapping the entire WNBA with a 23-4 record. They lost at Seattle by three April 19, then lost to the Storm at home July 17 by two, then, on Sunday, finally broke through with a one-point win (although they went ahead with a Nicky Anosike free throw with only 5.5 seconds left and gave up a miss by Sue Bird at the end of the ballgame). The Lynx then won an overtime, 111-103, over Connecticut Tuesday, even though they were up in the middle of the second quarter by 30 points. At least they held on this time. Lindsay Whalen scored 27 against her former team.
They've got three this week: at Chicago tomorrow at the Allstate Arena (wherever that is), home to New York Sunday, then at San Antonio Tuesday. Oh, and by the way, they re-signed their 2005 first-round draft pick, Kristen Mann, Tuesday. I don't know if she's going to be useful replacing the waived Núria Martínez (she had a bad hamstring and was planning to play for her national team in Spain), but I'll tell you one thing: She's easy on the eyes. Look at her -- she ain't no man.
#-2: Twins: (Last Week: -1). So obviously they had to man up this week. They had won eight in a row after sweeping Seattle last weekend, but got a huge wake-up call against the Tampa Bay Rays. Should I be thankful they were able to grind out a split, meaning they went a productive 5-2 this week and wind up still 1 1/2 games behind Chicago? Or should I note that the Bay Rays came back to tie after the Twinkies got leads both Wednesday night and Thursday (yesterday) afternoon? Or, should I note that they came back to win both games? Or, should I then offer that Delmon Young booted a fly ball Wednesday and then came back to make the game-winning hit in extra innings, and that yesterday's victory came when Jason Kubel hit a pop-up that clanged off a catwalk and eventually landed behind the pitcher's mound? I guess you need the breaks no matter how good people think you should be. However, the starting pitching was very good, with both Scott Baker and Kevin Slowey pitching like we expected them to.
This week they continue on the road. They have a weekend series at Cleveland, and then starting Tuesday, they have a big three-game series against the White Sox.
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