The Lynx are not a team that stays down for long.
At least not with Cheryl Reeve at the helm.
After missing the playoffs in 2010, Reeve’s first season as coach, the Lynx made 11 consecutive postseason appearances, including six trips to the Finals and four titles. The playoff streak ended in 2022, when the Lynx played all but four games without three-time All-Star Napheesa Collier.
Their first-round playoff loss to the Sun last season, after a 19-21 regular season, created some doubts about the Lynx’s expectations entering 2024. But two years removed from the retirement of 2017 WNBA MVP Sylvia Fowles, Reeve has demonstrated just how good she is at executing a quick turnaround.
This time, she’s getting it done with two high-impact players the Sky let slip through their fingers in free agency: guard Courtney Williams and forward Alanna Smith.
Both will be back in Chicago to face their former team for the first time Sunday (2 p.m., CW26).
“For this team, I think about where the season started and where you all thought our team would be,” Reeve said before the Lynx’s win Tuesday over the Liberty for the Commissioner’s Cup. “For them, they have believed in themselves that they could beat any team from the very beginning.”
Former Sky coach and general manager James Wade signed Williams and Smith to one-year contracts in 2023. Once in Sky uniforms, both blossomed in different ways.
Williams never had been tapped to run the point in the WNBA. After the first few training-camp practices, Wade told her she’d be in charge of the offense.
She excelled at it, finishing the season averaging 10 points and a career-high 6.3 assists. For the Lynx, she’s averaging just under 10 points and 5.4 assists.
Smith had not yet earned a solidified role in the WNBA. She was the eighth overall pick, selected by the Mercury, in the 2019 draft and spent three seasons in Phoenix playing limited minutes.
She signed with the Fever as a free agent in 2022 and was waived after nine games. In 2023, there was no guarantee what her role would be. But after forward Isabelle Harrison suffered a season-ending knee injury, Smith was tapped to join center Elizabeth Williams in the Sky’s starting frontcourt.
She excelled, quickly emerging as a candidate for the WNBA’s most improved award. This year, she’s averaging a career-high 12.2 points, 5.1 rebounds and nearly two blocks starting every game for the Lynx.
Reeve has been a longtime admirer of Smith’s game. Had Collier not been available to select with the No. 6 pick in the 2019 draft, the Lynx were going to take Smith.
“James Wade gets credit for bringing her to Chicago,” Reeve said. “It’s all about opportunity and timing. Being in Chicago when there was the opportunity to play and start, that’s what it is [all about] for a lot of these players.
“For [Smith], last season in Chicago was proving who she is now as a WNBA player.”
Coming into this season, the Lynx were projected by many to be a bottom-four team. The Sun-Times’ preseason power rankings had them ninth.
Six weeks into the season, they’re third in the league standings, fresh off winning the Commissioner’s Cup.
The Lynx are a franchise best known for a championship pedigree. Reeve was the architect of one of the greatest championship teams in WNBA history.
Replicating the Lynx’s starting five in 2017 — Maya Moore, Lindsay Whalen, Rebekkah Brunson, Seimone Augustus and Fowles — is impossible. But Reeve sees similarities between that team and the one she’s coaching.
“The intangibles, for sure,” Reeve said. “They possess the intangibles of a championship team. It’s hard to compare, but chemistry is always at the root of a successful team. That is laced through our team.”
