This past offseason, Lynx president of basketball operations and coach Cheryl Reeve led a front offense that signed Courtney Williams and Alanna Smith as free agents and traded for Natisha Heideman.
Tuesday? Quick dividends.
In an impressive 83-70 victory at Seattle on opening night, Smith had a career high with 22 points, Williams scored 14 and became just the second Lynx player in history with at least 10 points, five rebounds, seven assists and five steals in the same game and Hiedeman added nine points, five assists and two steals.
"The impact they've had right away is phenomenal,'' said Napheesa Collier, who had a ho-hum 20-point, 12-rebound game. "I just feel we've jelled so quickly.''
Against a Storm team that has added Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith to go with Jewell Loyd – the WNBA's leading scorer last year – the Lynx found chemistry on both ends of the floor.
But it took a little bit. The Lynx trailed by two after the first quarter and were down five early in the third.
But then: a 31-10 run took the Lynx from down five with 6:49 left in the third quarter to up 16 on Smith's free throw with 3:29 left.
It was a classic case of turning stops into points. Seattle scored 28 points in the first quarter, 26 in the second half. The Storm made one three-pointer all game, shot 31.4% in the second half. After scoring a whopping 30 points in the paint in the first half, Seattle got just 16 the rest of the way.
"We were a little disappointed in terms of our paint coverage,'' Reeve said of the way the Lynx started the game. "It took us through the middle of the third quarter to understand where to be. Once we corrected that, it got harder for them to score.''
Ogwumike (20 points, nine rebounds) and Ezi Magbegor (15 and nine) combined for 35 points and 18 rebounds. Collier and Smith combined for 42 and 20. Loyd had a 10-point, 10-assist double-double, but shot just 3-for-19 and scored just two second-half points.
The Lynx? It looked like everyone had been playing together for years. Smith and Williams did play together last season in Chicago, but the Lynx opened the season with two new starters and three new players in the top seven.
And they all hit the ground running.
"We're a very well-put-together team,'' said Smith, who also had eight rebounds, four blocks and a steal. "Credit to the big dogs up top who worked in the off-season. We have really good people, and it makes it easy to have a baseline of chemistry.''
That got better as the game went on.
The Lynx were up three after three quarters, a lead Seattle trimmed to one when Diggins-Smith scored with 9:10 left in the game. Over the next 5:41 the Lynx made seven of nine shots, got points from six different players. Seven of those points from Collier, all while the Lynx were holding Seattle to 1-for-10 shooting with two turnovers.
And that was the game.
"It started off a little slow, but after we made some adjustments, it felt great,'' Collier said. "We were scrambling for each other on defense. Seattle is a good team. I thought we shut the down, in the second half especially.''
The Star Tribune did not send the writer of this article to the game. This was written using a broadcast, interviews and other material.
