#0: Lynx (Last Week: -1). Must give props to the Lynx, the best franchise in Twin Cities sport the past three years (and that includes the Gopher women's hockey team). I bump them up to 0 because the retain the best record in the Women's National Basketball Association and they have won six straight after whipping San Antonio and, more impressively, coming back from a third quarter deficit to beat Phoenix -- both games, by the way, coming on the road.
Looking at the box scores of both games, you see that they won in different ways. In crushing The Bastard Utah Starzz by 16, all 11 Lynx players saw action, but Lindsay Whalen led the way with 21 points. But by turning a five-point deficit after 30 minutes to an 82-77 win over the Phoenix Lifelock, Head Coach Cheryl Reeve shortened her rotation to eight players, and four of her starters finished with between 14 and 18 points. To me, it looks like this team just finds ways to win, and the fact that they can do it by being flexible with the number of players who play and sharing who shoulders the scoring load bodes well for the future.
Also note that the last four games they've won have all been away from Target Center. They get to play at home this week in an attempt to extend their home winning streak Wednesday against Phoenix, Friday vs. San Antonio, and Sunday versus Seattle.
#-1: Twins (Last Week: -2). 3-1 for the week that really began Friday because of the All-Star Break, and hey, they have won five of their last six games. Yeah, let's just forget the first half ever happened!
Where are you on Glen Perkins? Honestly, I don't know. He may be the best closer that should be available in the trade market. The Twinks could use the future prospects a hot Perk will bring in trade before the July 31 trading deadline. Then again, I have a bad visceral reaction to trading away possibly the best player in a Twins uniform right now. I know they aren't going anywhere (recent winning form aside), but it would be nice to continue to see someone who can do his job well. I can understand trading him, and I can understand not trading him.
They are on the road this week, but it's two games in Anaheim and four at Seattle -- these are gettable games.
#-2: Swarm (Re-Entry!). I honestly do not keep tabs on the minor league sports teams in town. So color me surprised when I hit the "College Sports" section of ESPN.com, eventually clicked onto a lacrosse story about a cheerleader for the Toronto Rock of the National Lacrosse League fostering her nascent baking career ... then saw that on July 15 the Smarm traded two of their best players, Forward Ryan Benesch and Transition Andrew Watt to the Buffalo Bandits in exchange for three draft picks: The Bandits' first-round picks in the 2015 and 2016 NLL Drafts and a third-rounder in the 2017 Draft.
My first reaction? Bullshit, although I should not have been totally surprised. Owner John Arlotta has purged the team's best players before, maybe even a year ago. Of the players I can think off the top of my head, only Captain Andrew Suitor and Callum Crawford are sticking around, at least for the upcoming season, that longtime fans can rely on to be playing on the Xcel Energy Center felt. But neither of them are Benesch, the leading scorer in franchise history, or Watt, who holds the franchise record for most shorthanded goals.
So what gives? Looking through a forum thread regarding this blockbuster trade, a few fans speculate this was spurred on partly because, unbeknownst to me and possibly many other fans, the Swarm don't get a lot of attendance, or are at least lacking compared to other teams in the NLL. Some people also think that since the league's postseason format is so generous (there are eight spots and only nine teams, and I've heard of no plans for expansion), you just have to make sure you're not the worst team in the league, then you just have to catch lightning in a bottle to win three straight games to win the championship. You don't necessarily need high-priced (for NLL) players to do that.
One other thing to consider: The Swarm have four first-round picks in this year's draft: #'s 1, 2, 5 and 7. I don't know if this is a loaded draft, like this year's NHL Draft, or totally crappy, like this year's NBA Draft. But from what I've heard on the forum and the blurb from this mock by ILIndoor.com's Stephen Stamp, Minnesota's top pick will be a scoring stud named Logan Schuss. Stamp believes the Swarm will follow that up with a Defenseman named Jason Noble and later pick up Forward Scott Jones. We'll see if the Swarm follows form in the NLL Draft a couple months from now, and it'll take some time to see if these guys amount to anything. But Arlotta has the opportunities to reload, not rebuild, with young gunners. And if they are talented, trading Benesch and Watt is the organization essentially hoping they can do two years from now what they are doing right now. I am surprised that many fans on the forum weren't up in arms over this. But I can see that the team might be able to win a title with a youth movement.
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