If you start 3-13 in the NFL, your name might be Les Steckel, your season might be over already, and your coaching tenure might be zapped after just one year.
Lynx make amazing ascent: From 3-13 to playoff contender
3-13 is an infamous record around these parts, especially for Vikings historians who remember Les Steckel. But for the Lynx, a 3-13 record might give way to a playoff berth.
July 14, 2022 at 3:12AM
Even in leagues with longer schedules, a start that dreadful is usually predictive of a lost season. (One local caveat: The 1991 Twins, who started 2-9 and won the World Series).
In the WNBA, with fewer than half the number of games as the NHL or NBA and less than a fourth of the games in MLB, a 3-13 start should be enough to completely wreck a season.
That's what makes this Lynx season so remarkable.
For as uncharacteristic as their lousy 3-13 start was, their recent turnaround might be even more amazing. Now that they have won six of their last eight, including an important double overtime win over Phoenix on Tuesday, they have a legitimate chance to make the playoffs.
How is that possible? Well, several things are working in their favor.
*First and foremost, they are playing much better. It's no fluke they are 6-2 since that dreadful opening, given that they beat the two best teams in the league (Chicago and Vegas) in the process.
*Second, the WNBA season is longer than in years past. At 36 games instead of 32 last year or 34 in other years, the Lynx simply have more time to make up ground.
*Third, the WNBA has a generous allotment of playoff teams in which eight of the 12 teams in the league qualify.
*Fourth, there are essentially three playoff spots up for grabs among six teams separated by just 1.5 games in the standings. The Lynx are at the bottom of that group for now, but it wouldn't take much to catch and pass a few teams. If it was just one or two spots realistically open, the task would be much harder.
But as it is, the Lynx have a 53% chance of making the playoffs according to FiveThirtyEight.com's predictive model.
That number was close to zero a month ago when they were 3-13. But after just about everything went wrong, everything since has gone right.
The next two games should help dictate whether that number falls or rises. They face Dallas on Thursday — one of the teams just above them in the standings — before facing 5-19 Indiana in the second game of a back-to-back.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
