Late Sunday afternoon, after her team had lost Game 1 of the Western Conference finals, Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve calmly, publicly, challenged Lindsay Whalen and Seimone Augustus to do more.
Monday, subtly, the narrative had changed.
Reeve did not back down from anything she said, though she characterized her comments as less of a challenge than a simple response to a question of whether she needed more from her guards.
Yes, she does.
But Monday she pledged to do more to help them, particularly Whalen. Reeve suggested part of the problem might be in the way games are being called. Simply put: The bread and butter of Whalen's game always has been her ability to drive the lane and either get a basket or get a foul. This season, for whatever reason, those calls have stopped coming in a season in which her scoring average (10.9) was her lowest since 2006.
"Early on it seemed kind of like it was an agenda that she wasn't going to be able to go to the basket as she's done throughout her whole career and get calls when she's contacted illegally," Reeve said. "It's been a season-long struggle for her to overcome. She's changed her game because of it. I think it's really important that Lindsay Whalen be Lindsay Whalen, and I'm going to try to help her do that."
Whalen said she just wants to play better.
"That's not something I can control," she said of the officiating. "At the same time, that's kind of the way it's gone. But I guess I just need to do better. I need to be better. It's tough, it's hard. But it's the Finals. And you have to do what you need to do to be a better player.''