Rachel Banham glad to be back with the Lynx

Even though she understood the process, knew she was likely to return and realized the situation the Lynx were in, that doesn't mean the past week wasn't hard for Rachel Banham.

Re-signed Monday for the rest of the season, Banham was back at practice Tuesday as the Lynx prepared for Wednesday's game against Dallas at Target Center.

That ended about a week of worrying and waiting.

"It was a tough first couple days,'' Banham said. "I'm not going to lie. I felt anxious about the situation.''

Last week the Lynx, in a bind because of the salary cap and a long list of injuries, had to figure out a way to get Layshia Clarendon signed for the rest of the season without missing her for even one game.

That took some gymnastics, a careful study of league rules and maneuvering a salary cap with less than $200 of space.

The team's answer? Waive Banham to gain some salary cap space. Waive Clarendon from her injury exception contract. Re-sign Clarendon in time for back-to-back victories in Phoenix — two games the Lynx played with eight available players — and then sign Banham for the rest of the season to a restructured, more cap-friendly deal.

But it took a toll. Banham went up north to be with her family in their lake home. She tried to relax. She kept in contact with coach Cheryl Reeve and her teammates. She had to sweat out a couple of days to make sure she cleared waivers, then had to watch her team play, and win, both games in Arizona.

"It felt really weird,'' Banham said. "It was gross. I had major FOMO [fear of missing out]. After practice [last week] I went straight to my parents' house, got out of the Cities. No social media. I needed a reset. I had to get my mind right, understand the circumstances.''

Injuries to Rennia Davis (stress fracture in her foot), Aerial Powers (a hamstring, then thumb surgery), Natalie Achonwa (sprained MCL ligament) — and even missing Jessica Shepard for a time because of an adductor muscle injury — put a strain on the Lynx and had Reeve working as much at being a general manager as being a coach.

"It's not what you want to be doing,'' Reeve said. "When you have the dual role you'd prefer, when it's in the season, that you're spending most of your time coaching. We put in some hard work to land in the place we got to."

That the Lynx have worked through injury to land where they currently are is impressive. With Kayla McBride showing up on opening day and Napheesa Collier missing the first three games, the Lynx started 0-4.

At that point the Lynx signed Clarendon to the first of a series of injury hardship contracts.

Since then? Minnesota is 9-3. As the roster was growing shorter, Reeve and her coaching staff distilled the offense, focusing on an inside-out approach and emphasizing more precision in how and when center Sylvia Fowles and Collier got the ball inside. With Clarendon operating well in a pick-and-roll approach — and with McBride finding her rhythm — the Lynx have won nine of their past 12 games, including four in a row.

An emphasis on Fowles (19.3-point average in the four-game winning streak) and Collier (18.3) have forced teams to concentrate on them, opening the door for McBride (50 points the past two games) and Clarendon (a 14.3 scoring average in the past four).

In the past four games, the Lynx are second in the league in offensive efficiency (108.8) and third on defense (98.1). They are third in rebounding (38.3), first in assists (23.8) and first in points in the paint (47.5).

Now that the salary cap hurdles have been cleared, the Lynx have added depth, with Banham's return and forward Natasha Mack signed to a seven-day contract that will carry the team to the Olympic break.

For Banham, it was an emotional return. The former Lakeville North and Gophers star understood why she had to be away for a week. But she didn't want the break, and it was especially hard because the Lynx couldn't publicly talk about their plan.

"We all understood the situation, but it's still really hard,'' Banham said. "This is the team I always wanted to play for, be with, be around, represent. It felt weird. It felt wrong. But I had the right people in my corner, on my side. It was only a week. But it felt like forever.''