The Lynx did wake up in the fourth quarter and pulled away for a 79-68 win. They have the privilege of playing the woeful Mystics again Saturday on the road.

The Lynx should be 19-8 with 13 regular-season games remaining after that one. They are in position to make a playoff run for the first time since 2017, which was one season before Maya Moore walked away.

The Lynx had 40 playoff wins and four WNBA titles in Moore’s first seven seasons, and they have a total of two playoff wins in the past five seasons without her.

Which begs the question: could Reeve, also the team president, really afford to not draft talent because she didn’t want to coach someone? That is what occurred in the mid-April draft, when she traded down to avoid taking Angel Reese with the seventh pick, leaving the Lynx to take a flier on Pili at No. 8.

OK, Reese would be 50-50 to beat the star of your average junior high team in a game of H-O-R-S-E. And, yeah, Reeve had decided on a post-Sylvia Fowles, five-out offense, meaning Angel could look like a lost puppy a lot of the time on the offensive end.

Yet I was discussing this with a colleague Friday and we made this decision: Reeve passing on Reese was the equivalent of an NBA team passing on Dennis Rodman to take … who, Jarrett Culver?