When it comes to standing pat while her team looks lethargic, Cheryl Reeve will not let it continue. Reeve, who watched her Minnesota Lynx team kind of go through the motions against the Los Angeles Sparks on Sunday, just about had enough.
At halftime with the Lynx leading 46-45, Reeve gave what might be termed “a good talking-to” as her players tried to relax. There was no relaxing, though, to be found as Reeve laid down the law.
It’s a good thing she did because Minnesota came out of the locker room on fire. The Lynx, behind Napheesa Collier’s 23 points, dropped the Sparks 89-75 to post two victories in starting the 2025 WNBA season.
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“We have, you know, good, hard halftimes,” Reeve told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune after Sunday’s win.
For some eagle-eye Lynx fans, the Sparks game might have looked a little too much like Minnesota’s opener against the Dallas Wings. Reeve knew it, too.
“What Dallas saw in the first half and what L.A. saw in the first half was an open paint to drive into,” Reeve said after the game. “We closed it up. We got better.”
Minnesota Lynx player Courtney Williams received coach’s halftime message
Courtney Williams scored 13 points and had 10 assists, giving her a second double-double on the young season. That halftime talk from Reeve probably was still ringing in Williams’ ears after the game.
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“I mean, Cheryl always comes in at halftime and lets us know,” she said.
Williams also knows that for the Lynx to have success this season, the team must play a complete game. They have to cut down on the slow first-half starts and be able to drop the hammer on their opponents.
“We don’t want to be a second-half team,” Williams said. “The energy we’ve been bringing [on defense] in the second half, we want to bring for 40 minutes.”
Look for the Lynx to adapt a tougher stance in the first half going forward. The players don’t really want to hear their coach go off on them at halftime.
