What to make of the Lynx?

First off, can the WNBA please stop scheduling Lynx home playoff games opposite Vikings home games? They lose EVERY TIME!

The Lynx season ended abruptly on Sunday in a single elimination loss at home to Chicago. I certainly didn't see this coming. I thought things layed out very well for them to at least make a finals run.

Now yes, the format is probably unfair, that you can finish with the 3rd best record in your sport and be done in 1 game. But it is what it is.

It didn't seem like the Lynx were vulnerable. They won 9 of their last 10. They were 22-6 since that 0-4 start, and 17-3 since they were 5-7. Aside from the Clarendon injury they were about as healthy as they'd been all year.

But they're done. I only saw the highlights but it appeared to be a very poor game. In particular Collier was bad. Look, it has always been unfair to expect her to be a new Maya Moore just cause she is a forward drafted.out of UConn who was a ROY and is very versatile. But Fowles can't do it all herself. Collier.is going to have to take another step if she is going to be a leader on a championship team. 

This really goes down as the first true playoff failure of the Reeve era. They lost as finals favorites twice, but at least they were in the finals. There was no shame in the 2014 loss to that Phoenix team that only the Lynx could ever hope to beat. They bowed out quickly in '18 and '19 but those were very much transition teams. And last year they won a game, then at least played a clearly far superior Seattle team to the buzzer in game 1 before fading.

This was a home loss to a 16-16 team that you were clearly supposed to beat. It's a failure, and I don't think it's unfair to say that.

It may also be unfair to just expect a championship run again from a team that, as currently constructed, really hasn't done a thing yet.