SAN FRANCISCO -- Despite their undefeated start to the season, the Minnesota Lynx are unsatisfied with what they've shown.
"That's the thing with expectations -- we have to do more because our goals are high," Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said following Minnesota's 86-75 win over the Golden State Valkyries on Sunday. "We don't want to be pedestrian at anything we do. There are times in the game we go through stretches where we're just not intentional. We don't recognize how hard it is to win possession in this league and what it takes. Being more consistent in that mindset is what we're looking for."
The Lynx took control of Sunday's game in the third quarter, when they held Golden State to just eight points. Minnesota went on a 22-4 run that stretched from the third to the fourth quarter to push its one-point lead to 22 points.
But before that run, it was a back-and-forth game throughout the first half.
The Lynx credited their defense for the second-half turnaround -- limiting the Valkyries' space, taking control of the pace and executing better. But that attention to detail started at halftime -- with the Lynx trailing by one -- during an impassioned speech from Reeve.
"She was expressing her frustration with us," Napheesa Collier said. "And honestly, it's really valid. The fact that we know what to do and we're not going out to do it, it's extremely frustrating ... we need to go out there and take responsibility."
Before the game, Reeve reminded her team, which was coming off a buzzer-beater win over the Phoenix Mercury, that it needed to play with a high level of passion and effort.
"It's a matter of us locking in," Courtney Williams said. "We need to bring it every night. I think sometimes we take that for granted. We've got to stop doing that. If we want to accomplish the goals we have for ourselves, we can't be a second-half team."
Collier finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds but didn't seem to find an offensive rhythm until late in the third quarter. Williams added 20 points in 26 minutes.
Collier said the third quarter against the Valkyries, as well as other spurts during the season, is an example that Minnesota has what it takes to be a title contender. Collier told ESPN that she believes the Lynx's win over the Seattle Storm was their only "good game" this season.
Despite a 7-0 record -- their best start since 2017 -- the flashes of excellence aren't enough to leave them comfortable.
"The aggressiveness and assertiveness that we come out with in certain games, we need to do that in every game," Collier said. "We know we can. We have bigger goals this season than individual games. And yeah, it takes individual games to get there or we're not going to reach those bigger goals.
"It's really up to us. We are the only ones standing in our way, which is the good news. And hopefully, this is the last time we'll be talking about this."