For the better part of the first 60 minutes of the WNBA Finals, Indiana guard Briann January had pretty much had her way with the Lynx, penetrating off the dribble, causing havoc in the middle of the Lynx defense.
And it had to stop.
This is why, in the second half of Tuesday's Game 2 at Target Center, Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve went small. With starting guard Lindsay Whalen struggling to guard January, Reeve went with a lineup of Anna Cruz and Renee Montgomery at guard, Seimone Augustus and Maya Moore at forward and Sylvia Fowles at center.
Reeve, explaining the move, said simply: "We felt we had to do it."
It worked. And it might have changed the dynamic of this best-of-five WNBA Finals, which is tied at a game apiece going into Friday's Game 3 in Indianapolis.
The ability of both Cruz and Montgomery to engage the Indiana guards early in the possession, to hound the ball on the perimeter, to work around picks and prevent dribble penetration changed the tenor of the game.
Montgomery went into the game for Brunson 2 minutes, 19 seconds into the third quarter with the Lynx down seven. Less than a minute later, with the Lynx down nine, Cruz went in for Whalen, as Augustus, Moore and Fowles stayed in.
Over the final 6:53 of the quarter, the Lynx outscored the Fever 20-7 to take a four-point lead.