MINNEAPOLIS -- When the Minnesota Lynx first signed Janel McCarville back in March, questions surrounded the once-estranged WNBA veteran's potential impact.
But if any doubts remained about the 6-foot-2, 215-pound center's import, Ivory Latta and the Washington Mystics provided a lesson that silenced them Thursday night at the Target Center.
To be clear, the league's hottest team coming in had all kinds of opportunities to avoid seeing its 10-game and 18-home contest winning streaks nullified in a 79-75 setback. Without their stable center contributing offensively and clearing out at the floor's opposite end, chaos reigned where cohesion usually abides.
Concussed during the Lynx's win Tuesday at San Antonio, McCarville could only sit and gaze forlornly at her team's ineptitude on the defensive glass and inability to close against the Mystics' rapid, inside-out ball rotation. In earning a season sweep against Minnesota (still a WNBA-best 17-4), Washington outrebounded its adversary by an astounding 44-24 and turned 14 offensive boards into 17 second-chance points.
"I don't know where we were tonight," said Amber Harris, who started in place of McCarville.
A bevy of Lynx shots simply didn't fall, including a Seimone Augustus jumper followed by a mistimed Rebekkah Brunson putback attempt with less than 8 seconds to go. Augustus had drilled a left-wing 3-pointer to knot the score at 75, but Matee Ajavon tore through the heart of Minnesota's defensive paint for the winning layup with 21.3 seconds to go.
The outcome, however, was not decided solely in the closing seconds. The downward slope began 86 seconds into Tuesday's road win, when Silver Stars forward/center Danielle Adams' forearm smacked McCarville in the jaw, knocking her out of the game and the lineup indefinitely.
"She's clearly important," coach Cheryl Reeve said of McCarville, "but I think that we have players that were capable of stepping up that laid an egg tonight.
"Janel is really important to us; at the same time, it's something that we should've been able to get through."
Six points and 4.2 rebounds per game may not seem like a lot to be missing for a team that's been red-hot since the all-star break. But Minnesota didn't trade for McCarville this past offseason because it coveted another notable numbers producer.
It's the minute grunt work that helped her carve out a starting role following a two-year layoff from the WNBA.
And there wasn't enough of it in her stead Thursday night.
"It's unacceptable to get killed on the glass like that," Reeve said with a grimace. "I've got bigs that -- that's what you get paid to do. Rip it out of the air. I need guards who get in there and dig them out."
Without McCarville to set screens and facilitate in the half-court offense, top scorers Maya Moore and Lindsay Whalen were relegated to creating on their own -- with mixed, oft-frustrating results. Without McCarville to help box out when a Mystics shot went up, too many possessions remained with Washington following a miss.
In the first half, Minnesota overcompensated when collapsing and left Latta and others wide open for perimeter looks. After the break, better stretched-out matchup defense still couldn't translate to enough stops, as Washington continued to pound the Lynx on the offensive glass.
Michelle Snow led the way with 11 boards. Harris snagged just four in her first career start -- the same tally as Whalen, a point guard. Devereaux Peters recorded just one rebound in 11 minutes, 44 seconds of playing time.
Neither reserve post scored a point.
It wasn't with angst that McCarville watched her younger teammates struggle without her, just mild depression.
"Not frustrating," said McCarville, who may or may not travel with the team to Chicago on Sunday. "I was sad that I couldn't be there with them battling at the end."
Latta only made things more melancholy.
The 5-foot-6, 138-pound All-Star sparkplug didn't miss a shot until the fourth quarter, shooting 9-for-11 and 4-for-6 on 3s en route to tying Moore for a game-high 24 points. Even she was baffled at the trio of completely uncontested long-range attempts she was allowed during the first two quarters.
"I was beyond surprised," said Latta, who hadn't scored more than 11 points since the All-Star break. "To be honest, ya'll, sometimes I caught it and I was like, 'Shoot, I'm open. OK.' I was really surprised."
The point guard's scoring output matched her best of the season. The opponent the first time around: Minnesota.
Thursday's defeat wasn't a mirror-image of that 85-80 loss in the nation's capital. The Lynx actually outrebounded Washington that particular day but shot an atypical 38.5 percent from the floor.
But while several Minnesota shots popped painfully out of the basket once again, its worst rebounding performance of a magnificent season helped the Mystics get theirs -- Latta hopes -- back on track.
"Oh my goodness, it is huge," said Latta, whose team had lost six of its past seven before Thursday. "To come in an environment like this, man, I actually love playing here because their crowd is always into it. It feels good when another team comes into their environment and (we) don't hear too much."
It was a strange sensation, almost numbing for a team not used to being frazzled at home, especially in the Target Center. A physical, tightly-officiated game gave an 8,723-strong crowd plenty of occasions for vocality, but even its members seemed perplexed when the Lynx trailed entering the fourth quarter for just the second time inside the Target Center this year.
In a 19-point effort, Whalen looked less collected than usual. Her five turnovers tied a season high, and too often her slashes to the rim ended in botched lay-ins rather than the strong finishes or kick-outs that have made her so effective all season.
"There's a couple times we probably should've made the extra pass and didn't," Whalen said. "It put us in some tough situations."
Moore, a league MVP frontrunner, had another fine offensive performance -- 9-of-15 shooting, 4-of-7 from 3 -- but played a bit out of position at power forward and contributed just three rebounds.
Even in resurging from a deficit that once stood at eight, it simply appeared the Lynx were missing something.
She was sitting on the bench in a black-and-pink plaid button-down and a gray fedora.
"Any time a starter goes down, anyone as solid as (Janel) goes down, you don't want to see that," Moore said. "In times like that, we have to come together and find a way to win."
McCarville's status remains day-to-day as the Lynx prepare for Sunday's contest at Eastern Conference leader Chicago. Still 2 ½ games ahead of Los Angeles in the West, Minnesota has yet to lose back-to-back games this season.
But another night like Thursday could spell the Lynx's first losing streak this summer, especially against the Sky, who are virtually tied atop the WNBA's team rebounding charts.
"When you get outrebounded by 20," Moore said bluntly, "It's going to be hard to win."
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