Lynx 2015: Three In Five

The Minnesota Lynx won the 2015 WNBA title with a 69-52 victory over the Indiana Fever at Target Center in Minneapolis, winning the series three games to two.  This is the Lynx' third championship in five years, having won the same way the San Francisco Giants did in baseball's World Series.  That is, by winning every other year.

In the first WNBA Final to go the distance since 2009, the series had been a hard-fought battle between two teams that turned out to be nothing but a showcase for the league:  Maya Moore's Game 3 buzzer beater.  Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve challenging her players to back up Moore on the court after they lost Game 1.  Fever coach Stephanie White ripping the officials.  The play of Tamika Catchings, who led the Fever to a desperation Game 4 victory.

After a shaky start, Game 5 and the series belonged to the Lynx.  Moore only scored five points, but it didn't matter as her teammates more than picked up the slack.  Sylvia Fowler, who came in a mid-season trade with the Chicago Sky, scored 20 points and 11 rebounds.  It was enough to make her the playoff MVP.

During the regular season, the Lynx won the Western Conference like everyone said they would, but it wasn't easy.  Seimoine Augustus and Lindsay Whalen had to miss games due to injuries, so the team added Fowler, Anna Cruz and Renee Montgomery to the lineup.  They won their playoff series against the Los Angeles Sparks and Phoenix Mercury who, let's face it, would have been the favorite if Diana Taurasi had not chosen to sit out the season.

This is the first time the Lynx had clinched the league championship on their home floor, which came just in time for Target Center's 25th anniversary.  Hard to believe, but it is one of the oldest venues in professional basketball.  So the place is getting a makeover, which means that the Lynx will have to play somewhere else in the 2017 season.

But let's not worry about that right now.  After all the champagne baths, ticker-tape parades and private Prince concerts have ended, it's time to stop and consider what the Minnesota Lynx have accomplished in the last five years.  Augustus, Moore, Whalen, Reeve, Rebekkah Brunson and others who have come and gone have won everywhere they went--championships in college and the pros plus Olympic gold medals, and will be remembered as part of the cornerstones for the evolution of women's basketball in America.  No, make that the evolution of basketball, period.