Thursday Therapy: September Begins

Welcome to the month of September. It has 30 days and will hopefully feature a change towards cooler weather. It also is the last month of the offseason, with October bringing us the return of NBA basketball and bringing us solace from summer.

September does feature the end of the WNBA season and, as is tradition, the Minnesota Lynx are well positioned to make a strong playoff run, and will look to secure their second straight title and third in four years following the close of the season. The Lynx have seven games left in the regular season, including two of their last three home games this weekend (Friday against Washington and Sunday against Connecticut).

The Lynx have a playoff spot wrapped up and currently have the best record in the WNBA (22-5), but only by a half game over the Los Angeles Sparks. Next Tuesday brings the rubber match between the Lynx and Sparks after they traded away wins in June, which will be on ESPN2 and well worth watching as both a likely Western Conference Finals preview and the decider of the head-to-head tiebreak for the top overall seed in the playoffs.

Long story short, as is often said on these pages, watch and support the Lynx in the close to their season and preparation for their playoff run. Watching a great sports team in Minnesota that already exists is an excellent opportunity.

Speaking of rotten Minnesota luck, spare a thought for the Vikings fans in your life after yesterday’s horrifying-sounding injury to starting quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, now reported to be a ruptured ACL and significant structural damage. The Wolves have seen their share of hope-crushing injuries in the last few years, and it really, really sucks to see the Vikings get hit with one in what sounded like a season with a lot of promise.

With football beginning and the WNBA wrapping up, there’s a good bit of sports going around. But don’t worry, the NBA is always watching. You may have noticed player previews already popping up around these pages. In case you’ve missed any: Brandon Rush, Cole Aldrich, Kris Dunn, and Andrew Wiggins. Speaking of Wiggins, I didn’t want to write any more about NBA 2K17, but his reaction to his player rating was pretty fun.

Get out there and enjoy the first day of September.