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    • Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve needed a courageous team. They delivered.
    Tennessee

    Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve needed a courageous team. They delivered.

    Eira Gwyneth Posted on

    BROOKLYN, NY – There was a moment in the hectic and fantastic final minute of regulation time in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals when extremely energetic Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve looked like she was about to quit on the sideline sneak around and jump onto the field to play defense.

    Had she done that, as strange as it would have been, it certainly wouldn’t have been the most surprising thing to happen in a game in which her Lynx had no right to win but still made it 95-93 in overtime.

    When it was over, after a stunning four-point game from Courtney Williams and a crucial missed second free throw from Breanna Stewart that almost certainly would have won the game, and the general back and forth of a heavyweight battle over the distance and then some, Reeve was pleased to note that it was the first time in WNBA postseason history that a team trailed by 15 points in the final five minutes of regulation and came back with a win.

    If she hadn’t mentioned it, the silence and shock of the New York Liberty crowd would have told the story aptly. What seemed like a sure win on their home court dissolved into a furious rally by a team that had just played Game 5 of its previous cross-country series two days earlier.

    Sometimes the team that’s going stays in the lead, and that was the case Thursday night in Minnesota. They were the ones who had no peace after their win over Connecticut on Tuesday in Minneapolis, they were the ones who struggled with the quick turnaround, they were the ones who had to fly in one day and play the next – and they have for it ensured that everything worked to their advantage.

    “I think what sets our team apart is being able to get through difficult times,” Reeve said after jumping for joy and triumphantly storming off the field and into the locker room. “You have to be mentally strong and resilient. You have to look within and not blame others and give each other confidence, and we were that team.”

    That’s true, Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said after watching the whole thing from her front-row seat on the opposing team’s bench.

    “They brought the energy up, they outran us, we missed a lot of shots,” she said of how the Lynx took the lead at the end of the game. “They did better than us, they found a way to win. At the other end they were doing backing tracks. They blew us up, they were very physical. They went to another level.”

    Much of this would have seemed impossible two hours earlier, when the Lynx trailed 32-19 after the first quarter. But Reeve, who coached the U.S. Olympic team to a gold medal in Paris two months ago, wasn’t worried.

    “We know it’s a long series,” she said. “Nothing is won in the first quarter. It wasn’t the first quarter we had hoped for. Our narrative in the timeouts was that we just had to find our footing, find our defensive footing, and we did that in the second quarter. We held them to 12 after giving up 32. We went into halftime in good shape (down by eight).”

    As the Lynx got back into the game, Reeve and the players on the bench became more animated, sensing something big was brewing.

    “Defensively we knew what we had to do,” Reeve said. “We had to overcome a lot. … We got big stops when we needed them. Time and time again, whether balls go out of bounds, 50-50 balls, referees, whatever happens, jump balls, fouls, all that stuff, we just had to be brave in the end, we had to get stops to win and that’s it , what I say. I’m proud of that.”

    When Reeve and the Lynx arrived in New York on Wednesday, she was asked what the turnaround was after Game 5 the night before in Minnesota.

    “Quickly,” she said.

    “It is what it is, as we all know: television. We just have to make the best of it.”

    They certainly did.

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    Eira Gwyneth
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