Crystal Dangerfield had met few of her first professional teammates in person. Instead, the meet and greets were taking place over Zoom thanks to the coronavirus.

That sets itself up for a less-than-ideal start to a WNBA career for a rookie point guard. But there was nothing awkward about it. Somehow, with a group of fresh faces who were hundreds to thousands of miles apart, the Lynx were gelling.

People were laughing, cracking jokes on each other, and just energy that way, Dangerfield said.

Napheesa Collier felt it, too. The chemistry was obvious to her, through the computer screen.

I really got along with everyone, I enjoyed talking with everyone on there, Collier said. So I knew from the beginning it was going to be really fun being around this group.

If you can bond over Zoom, you can probably do it in person, Dangerfield surmised. That proved true almost immediately. Players were in the Twin Cities the week prior to heading to the WNBA bubble in Florida. And while they werent able to work out together then, Collier noted they were hanging around one anothers workouts, chatting and hanging out around the facility.

I really liked who these people were as people, Collier said. So its always fun to have that chemistry going onto the court, and I guess it was kind of surprising that it translated so easily onto the court.

You never know if it will. Plenty of teams feature players that like one another, yet arent very good. Friends may not play well together. But as training camp commenced, evidence mounted that this group was going to work together.

Things are going to go wrong in training camps, particularly when players havent been able to play competitive basketball for months prior to camp. Lynx training camp was no different. Bad passes were made. Shots were missed.

What impressed Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve was the response to those situations.

I didnt have to coach them and say, Hey, when someone doesnt make a play, its not just one person. I didnt have to coach any of that, and body language, all of that was very natural to this group, Reeve said. They were good to each other. If somebody made a mistake, it was like, Lets pick you up and lets move on to the next one. You got this, all that good stuff. I would say it was those interactions.

Thats exactly what played out in games. The Lynx fell behind in games, it lost one important player after another, from Karima Christmas-Kelly for the season, to Sylvia Fowles for most of the season, to not having Odyssey Sims at the start of the campaign, to being without players such as Rachel Banham, Shenise Johnson and Lexie Brown intermittently. And it never mattered.

The Lynx continued to win, with new players stepping up and seizing opportunities at every step.

You saw it when we were down in games, when Im losing my mind about all thats happening wrong. They dont hear me, Reeve said. They find a way to just keep playing the next play. I think something that many, many people have commented on is that this group just keeps playing and theyve got a relentless way about them, and I do believe its because of how they feel about each other.

It all added up to the Lynx, considered a fringe playoff team at the start of the season, finishing 14-8 in the regular season to earn the No. 4 seed in the playoffs and a first-round bye in playoffs that began on Tuesday. Bridget Carleton thinks Minnesotas resilience and cohesiveness was a direct result of the teams chemistry.

We care about each other, we want each other to be successful, so we celebrate every little thing we can, Carleton said. We want to fight for each other, we want to do every little thing we can to help the person next to us. I think thats why weve been so resilient throughout the year, and that has helped us get to this point.

The Lynx held their annual end-of-regular-season get-together Monday night to celebrate the end of the regular campaign and look forward to whats to come.

It was so fun, Collier said.

Of course it was. Thats been the case for everything this team has done together this season.

I think every time this group gets together they just really enjoy one another, Reeve said. They believe in each other, and theyre excited about the opportunity for the 2020 playoffs.

AP AWARDS

Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve was named the Associated Press WNBA Coach of the Year on Tuesday. Guard Crystal Dangerfield, a second-round pick back on draft night, was named Rookie of the Year. Forward Napheesa Collier earned second-team All-WNBA honors.

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Early Zoom calls revealed team chemistry that has powered Lynxs success - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press