The Minnesota Lynx fell short of equaling their 2016 start. Now they will try do something last season's squad didn't do: bounce right back.
The Lynx, 9-1 after suffering a 98-93 home loss to the Connecticut Sun on Saturday, host the Washington Mystics on Friday evening at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.
A year ago, Minnesota opened the season with 13 straight wins but lost its next three. Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, hoping to avoid such a streak, focused on basics in practices this week.
"Any time you lose you have their attention a little bit more," she told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "We let some things slip here and there so we plugged a few holes this week. We cleaned some things up."
When the two teams met two weeks ago, the Lynx ran away with a 98-73 win. But the Mystics were without star forward Elena Della Donne.
On Friday, Washington will have its star on the court but will be without its head coach, Mike Thibault, who -- with assistant coach Eric Thibault, his son -- will be in California for the funeral of his father, Frank Thibault.
Assistant Marianne Stanley, the 2002 WNBA coach of the year with Washington, will coach the Mystics against Minnesota.
"It's a tough thing to go through to have two staff members (absent)," said Reeve. "So, they have a legend stepping in. I told our players you pull together in times like this."
The Mystics (7-4) are coming off an 87-83 home loss to Dallas in which they blew a 10-point halftime lead.
"We had them where we wanted them at certain times, and we just kind of took our foot off the pedal," Della Donne told The Washington Post. "Especially on defense, we just had lapses where we were able to let them get into their comfort zone. They were just able to knock down some key shots at the end."
Dallas ended the game with an 8-0 run over the final two minutes.
In practice this week, Thibault turned up the pressure.
"How much are we willing to compete?" Thibault told the Post. "Are we willing to apply the same pressure to other people that they do to us and then react better to the pressure? We had as good of a practice as we could have Wednesday against the same kind of pressure, maybe even more than we saw today, but short-term memory, it kicked in."
Friday's match-up will feature two of the league's top four scorers.
Della Donne, the 2015 MVP, is averaging 20.4 points per game in her first year in Washington.
"She's a tremendous scorer," Reeve said of Della Donne, who has led the Mystics in scoring in nine of their 11 games. "Her ability to get to the foul line, that's what this entire team is about. ... They put a lot of pressure on your defense. They have shooters all over the place. Taking one of those players out of the mix, like a Delle Donne, you change your focus. You put her back in the game and you have your hands full."
Minnesota will counter with its own MVP candidate, center Sylvia Fowles.
Fowles is second in the league in both scoring (20.9 points per game) and rebounding (9.8).
"When Syl is locked in and she is being patient and she's getting where we want to go, I don't think anybody can do anything with it," Rebekkah Brunson said of her teammate, according to WNBA.com. "She's an amazing player, and I don't think anyone in this league can stop her."
After playing just once in 12 days, Minnesota will have a quick turnaround. The Lynx host the 0-12 San Antonio Stars on Sunday.
Washington plays at Chicago the same day.
