Injuries to Napheesa Collier, Dorka Juhasz, and Emma Cechova left the Minnesota Lynx with two glaring deficits: a lack of size and questionable depth.
Brilliant two-way seasons from Natasha Howard and Nia Coffey mostly made the lack of size in the frontcourt a non-factor to start the season. Likewise, Cheryl Reeve’s starting lineup has been such a productive, well-oiled machine that the Lynx’s depth issues didn’t even seem to matter. Olivia Miles, Courtney Williams, Kayla McBride, Coffey, and Howard were carrying the team to wins even when the bench struggled to produce.
Against the Aces, that lack of depth and bench production was on full display. The starting lineups matched up pretty well. Both teams had two 20-point scorers in the starting lineup—A’ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray for the Aces, and Olivia Miles and Natasha Howard for the Lynx—and two starters each who scored at least 15 points in Kayla McBride and Courtney Williams on one side and Jackie Young and NaLyssa Smith on the other.
The difference in bench scoring, however, was big. The Lynx got seven points out of their bench—four from Liatu King and three from Antonia Delaere—while the Aces got nine points each from Cheyenne Parker-Tyus and Jewell Loyd and four from Chennedy Carter.
The Lynx can overcome weak bench production against most teams if their starters are good enough, but the Aces are a different beast. Loyd and Carter could be starters for most other teams in the league. When you can’t match the Aces’ firepower in the starting lineup AND their depth on the bench, it’s difficult to beat the defending champions.
“We've got to get more off of our bench,” Reeve said in the postgame media availability. “They certainly did. We got starters that are having to do everything. I thought Toni’s minutes were good. We just need more help. There’s a lot of pressure on that starting five.”
Reeve has to ask a lot from her starters
The Lynx average 91.5 points per game, the second-highest mark in the W behind the Aces. Their starters average 75.8 of those points, while the bench only averages 15.7 points per game. The only team with worse bench production per game is Atlanta—another top-heavy team playing without its best frontcourt player.
Knowing that the bench struggles to produce puts a lot of pressure on the Lynx’s starters to play heavy minutes and deliver in those minutes because there is no one to pick up the slack consistently. Maya Caldwell, Anastasiia Kosu, and Antonia Delaere have had their moments this season, but their production is still very up and down.
There are a few options for the Lynx to improve their depth. While there has been no official timeline for either, there’s still hope that Collier and/or Juhasz will return at some point in the season. Getting Collier back would obviously be the biggest boost for the Lynx, even if she’s not playing like an MVP candidate after a lengthy absence. Juhasz is fresh off a EuroLeague MVP season, so she would also be a nice player to have coming off the bench.
Otherwise, the Lynx can explore the trade market for an in-season move.
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