#-1: Lynx (Re-Entry!). For some weird reason the Lynx played their first game of the regular season on Saturday, when another Women's National Basketball Association club, the Tulsa Shock, had already played three games. I'm pretty sure there were no scheduling issues at Target Center.
Anyway, they blasted the Connecticut Sun, 90-74. It featured balanced scoring by Maya Moore (game high 26 points) and Seimone Augustus (20), and a robust first-ever appearance by Janel McCarville, who came back to Minnesota (and reunited with Lindsay Whalen) for the first time since taking the University of Minnesota women's basketball program to its greatest days in its history. McCarville, who sat out at least last year to recharge her batteries and recover from injury, did not score a point but had three blocks, two steals and had a game-high +/- (WNBA box scores now feature +/- figures? How sabermetric of them!) of +32. That +/- is important because it takes into account how the opponent does not score. McCarville may not have rang up her line, but just her presence looked like it affected the Sun's game plan.
How McCarville becomes enmeshed with the rest of the team appears to be the biggest question mark coming into the season. She was slowed by injury, so she could not practice with the team full-on. Also, she simply isn't Taj McWilliams-Franklin, the "Mama Taj" on-court and in-locker leader whom the players could lean on and would listen to. (Her ability to block shots, box out and collect rebounds will be missed as well.) What roles can McCarville replace now with McWilliams-Franklin retired and an Assistant Head Coach with the New York Liberty? I will assume it's the on-court stuff, and even that scares me because I don't know how healthy she is.
So, how about the off-court stuff? The TMF was so good because she was both talented and, yes, old enough for many to see her as a mother figure. That, I assume, can smooth a lot of potential bad feelings over whenever she called a fellow player out for not doing her job. Someone has to do that on every team, so who is it going to be here?
Let me volunteer Augustus. I don't want to push her out to pasture, especially because she was able to drop 20 on the Sun. But I firmly believe that this should be Moore's team. She is athletic, agile and has the ability to both spot up for three and drive to the hoop. I would like to see Augustus shift into a ... I don't want to say a secondary role, but the non-primary role, because her energies might be better expended making sure all the other players on the floor are honoring their assignments and making sure they're going all-out.
Most WNBA prognosticators say the Lynx are going to finish third in the Western Conference, behind the Phoenix Mercury (who drafted The Next Great Women's Basketball Player, Brittney Griner, and the league is still small enough that one player can tip the balance of power) and the Los Angeles Sparks (who should be better now that Candace Parker is back from maternity leave). I don't think that's an unfair assessment, although I can totally see this team rampaging through the regular season like they did the past two years and winning their second WNBA title in three years.
However, the big potential weakness I see is depth. I was surprised to hear that although this appears to be a veteran-laden team, at least when it comes to the starters, Minnesota is the second-youngest team in the WNBA. They traded away long-bomb specialist and irritant Candace Wiggins and released Jessica Adair, Amber Thorn and another player I can't recall. Three rookies made the team this year, and through one game, they're only playing when the game's well in hand. Head Coach Cheryl Reeve has always put her faith in a small rotation, and I still am wondering if Monica Wright (aka Kevin Durant's "friend" -- remember when he made that million-dollar donation to the families whose lives were affected by that deadly tornado in Moore, Okla.? He made that announcement while visiting Wright in the Lynx's only preseason game at Target Center Tuesday, May 21. Did not know this at all) can adequately replace Wiggins as the first women off the bench.
Lastly, I'm worried about the reserves being good enough to spell the starters in a game. That would obviously be good for the starters for a game, but it's even better for them in the long run. The playoffs are what matters, and any wear and tear you can save for the postseason would help immensely. That's why you need substitutes that can hold their own so the veterans won't be gassed by the time the playoffs roll around. We will see; the season ramps up to full speed with games this week at home against Phoenix (the league delays the start of the Lynx's season a week after league play begins, then makes them wait another five days to play their second game of the year??) Thursday and at Washington Saturday.
#-2: Twins (Last Week: -1). You know what? I want to take back what I said about Ron Gardenhire. Maybe he shouldn't be fired. Putting a ten-game losing streak behind you helps. Replacing that with a 5-1 screening week helps, too. But I was convinced to hold onto the pink slip after hearing an astute observation when I just happened upon Judd & Dubay on ESPN 1500, a sports-talk radio station I hadn't listened to because I used to work for KFAN and still patronize them for the most part.
Jeff Dubay, a brilliant radio show host who used to work for the Fan with Paul Allen (until his life unraveled with an addiction to cocaine) in the same time slot he now works alongside former Star Tribune writer Judd Zulgad said that the body language he saw with both the Minnesota Twins and the Milwaukee Brewers in a game (I want to say it was one of the last two at Target Field, not one of the first two at Miller Park) were markedly different. A pickoff play by a Brewers Pitcher was kicked by the First Baseman, who glared back at the Pitcher like he was saying, "What the fuck was that?" That was the most extreme of the signs of body language Dubay recalled; most of the time the Brew Crew players were hunched over and just going through the motions. He (who, by the way, was a bat boy with the club when he was a kid) did not see that with the Twinks. Despite their recent struggles, he did not see any hunched shoulders or lack of hustle.
That led Dubay, who knows his sports but really knows his baseball, that that professionalism is due in large part to Gardy. The players, who are young and are going to take their lumps this year, would not be giving effort if they didn't care about the manager. The players' moods, therefore, reflect the fact that they still believe in him. Once you can see players quit on a manager, Dubay believes, that is the time you make a change. So don't pull the trigger, at least not yet. OK.
Maybe we can safely surmise that talent along with will propelled this team to a sweep of The Bastard Seattle Pilots and two-of-three from the Seattle Mariners, two of the worst and most directionless franchises in Major League Baseball. That the Twins beat the dregs of the league bodes well for the underlying confidence of the players in that dugout. Also note that the starting pitching has stabilized, Joe Mauer seems to be hitting again, Justin Morneau is putting another healthy year between him and his career-altering concussion, and, maybe more importantly, Aaron Hicks is starting to get it. He still may not be swinging the bat, but he had a week of defensive Web Gems patrolling Center Field. Hicks sticks, if only for his defensive prowess.
This week they're on the road -- three at Kansas City, then three in Washington, the place this squad should still be in. The Royals are just as listless as the Brewers and Mariners right now, and although The Bastard Montreal Expos have a lot of top-line talent, most of them are banged up, and the lineup as a whole are having a hell of a hard time hitting the ball. If they can overcome their road woes, Minnesota could follow up a great week with another one.
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