Minnesota Lynx vs Seattle Storm - 9/20/20

[Shades]

WNBA Championship Semifinals Game 1
Palmetto, FL - Court 1 - 3:00 PM ET
TV: ABC, NBA TV Canada

Video stream:
ABC Live Stream (tvpli)

League Pass:

WNBA League Pass | Games: Lynx at Storm

Watch the Minnesota Lynx at Seattle Storm game on September 20, 2020 on WNBA League Pass

leaguepass.wnba.com

Game page:

09/20/20: Minnesota Lynx @ Seattle Storm - WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA

WNBA postpones game between Storm and Lynx due to COVID-19 The Associated Press BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) The opener of the WNBA playoff series between the Seattle Storm and the Minnesota Lynx was postponed nearly 90 minutes before its scheduled tipoff Sunday because of inconclusive COVID-19 test...

www.wnba.com

ESPN Gamecast:

Lynx vs. Storm (Sep 20, 2020) Postponed - ESPN

The WNBA game Minnesota Lynx vs. Seattle Storm has been postponed until further notice. Please check back for the final score once the game restarts.

www.espn.com

 

[eebmg]

Well, for those who doubt getting an even fully healthy Fowles back into the lineup is a good thing since it is hard to reintegrate a post player, this might move the meter even more

Star Tribune

Your source for Minnesota news today. Read articles, view photos or watch videos about news in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth, St. Cloud, Rochester, and beyond.

m.startribune.com

Center Sylvia Fowles’ return to the Lynx might have been short-lived.

Fowles missed the final 13 games of the regular season with right calf injury. After extensive rehab, she was able to return to the starting lineup Thursday in the second-round playoff game against Phoenix. Fowles struggled, scoring six points on 2-for-8 shooting with four rebounds in 18 minutes. Coach Cheryl Reeve said Fowles felt tightness in her calf in the third quarter. She left the game and did not return.


Her status for Game 1 of the WNBA semifinals against Seattle Sunday is in doubt.

“She at this point is questionable for (Game 1),” Reeve said. “We’re just working around the clock, trying to see what we can do for her.”

 

[eebmg]

and continuing the theme, Naphessa realizes she will have to play better than she did in the regular season.

Well-rounded Napheesa Collier looks for another level vs. Seattle

Lynx need Napheesa Collier to turn proactive rather than give up the ball against Storm.

www.startribune.com

“That’s the beauty about the playoffs,” said Collier, about to enter her first playoff series after playing single-elimination games last year and Thursday. “Everyone has to go to a new level. I’ll have to step it up and play better than I have all season.”

 

[Shades]

Today is Cheryl Reeve’s birthday. What kind of present should the players give her?

 

[j66kicker]

Just announced this game is postponed - Seattle player(s) inconclusive COVID-19 tests

 

[nwhoopfan]

How in the world could anyone get it after they've been in the bubble for 2 months or whatever?

 

[eebmg]

How in the world could anyone get it after they've been in the bubble for 2 months or whatever?

Hopefully, follow up tests are negative. Still, the fact it was more than one person I think and the testing of everyone is probably done by the same lab worries me.

 

[Bigboote]

How in the world could anyone get it after they've been in the bubble for 2 months or whatever?

I don't think every single person on the campus is in sequestered. Hotel personnel, for example. I see a lot of people on the sidelines with masks on. I think the trainers are sequestered (although most that I see are wearing masks), the refs for sure. But what about timekeepers? The folks who clean the courts? I really don't know.

 

[Shades]

Teams have been making excursions off campus.

 

[Bigboote]

Teams have been making excursions off campus.

I’ve heard about trips to otherwise deserted spots. Have they been going to places where there are other people?

I remember seeing one player doing a spot interviewing a local black business owner (out front of his restaurant), but didn’t know whether that was after they’d started the bubble.

 

[oldude]

Game 1 of the Lynx-Storm series has been rescheduled to Tuesday night, pending results from the retesting of Storm players. The hope is that there were false positive tests causing the League to postpone Sunday’s game.

if players on the Storm are confirmed as positive, with the likelihood that others on the team will have to also quarantine for some period of time, I’m not quite sure how the teams restart their semifinal series.

The WNBA has been doing such a great job of managing a season in the bubble. It would be terribly disappointing if the league had to shut everything down so close to the end of the season.

 

[donalddoowop]

Game 1 of the Lynx-Storm series has been rescheduled to Tuesday night, pending results from the retesting of Storm players. The hope is that there were false positive tests causing the League to postpone Sunday’s game.

if players on the Storm are confirmed as positive, with the likelihood that others on the team will have to also quarantine for some period of time, I’m not quite sure how the teams restart their semifinal series.

The WNBA has been doing such a great job of managing a season in the bubble. It would be terribly disappointing if the league had to shut everything down so close to the end of the season.

I don't think they would shut it down. I believe the league will want to move on and award the series to the Lynx. However, the players may stand together and say if the Storm cannot play just end the season as is. They have been close all season and will probably stick together now. Let's hope the players on the Storm are free of the virus, that is the most important thing.

 

[ShmiCO]

 

[Geew1992]

Lexi Brown has left the bubble due to concussion protocol. The feeling was she couldn't recover properly while there.

 

[UConnCat]

Game on tonight. One Storm player still waiting for a test result (after a negative result yesterday) but all other Storm players cleared.

 

[UConnCat]

 

[UConnCat]

 

[nwhoopfan]

Do we know who is out?

 

[eebmg]

Got to think whoever was affected and even assuming all is well come game time, this has been a mental headache for the Storm and in addition, the Lynx (and Fowles) got a little more rest. Lynx getting some breaks

 

[eebmg]

Interesting article about how Sue Bird uses her experience against rookies. The timing with Sue facing Crystal seems to be to relevant to be coincidental but the article does not mention Crystal or any particular player by name

Don’t Get Star-Struck Playing Sue Bird. She’s Here to Win. (Published 2020)

“Every now and then you notice a rookie going extra hard against you,” said Bird, the star Seattle Storm point guard.

www.nytimes.com

“Every now and then you notice a rookie going extra hard against you,” Bird said. “If someone’s going extra hard — like, I just watched film on you and I never saw you do that — then you kind of realize like, OK, they’re trying to maybe make a name for themselves.” In other words, just like Bird did all those years ago.

That predictable enthusiasm is part of what can make rookies easier to read — and easier to score on. Bird insisted that she doesn’t turn to trash talk (“I only engage when I’m first talked at,” she said), but she said she had plenty of other ways to exploit her competitive edge.

“There are just things that a rookie isn’t going to know — things none of us knew coming into the league,” Bird said. “So there are just small ways in which you can take advantage of that lack of knowledge, whether it’s terminology they don’t know, or different defensive schemes they don’t know, or how to guard certain actions that they just don’t know yet.”

“I’m not even talking about if a rookie’s guarding me,” she continued, adding that she knows “exactly what play to call” when she sees rookies up against teammates like Jewell Loyd and Breanna Stewart.

“For me, it’s more, ‘How can I manipulate this person?’” she said.

That lack of knowledge, though, cuts both ways, according to Bird. Minimal scouting reports on new players mean that at least for their first month or two, W.N.B.A. rookies have some degree of mysteriousness on their side — a rarity in an intimate league like the W. “Because we’re a small league, everybody knows everybody’s everything,” Bird said. “If we know a player can’t go left, everybody is screaming, ‘Force her left!’ When there’s blood in the water, we all attack it.”