The shot marked the first points for the Lynx in the 4th quarter and the first of 10 fourth-quarter points for Carrington. The play sparked a 16-4 Lynx run that saw their lead swell to as many as nine, which they rode to victory while enduring a late Storm run.
In the end, it’s only one win in the standings, but a win on the road against a playoff team with MVP front-runner Napheesa Collier on the mend made for a perfect debut for Carrington with her new team.
“Without her, we don’t win that game,” Natisha Hiedeman, who previously played with Carrington as members of the Connecticut Sun, said to reporters after practice on Thursday. “Great first game for her as a Lynx.”
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Carrington scored 13 points in under 18 minutes of play on 5-of-7 shooting from the field. She added four rebounds, two assists, two steals, and one game-changing blocked shot.
“They thought they had a transition layup,” Carrington said with a smile during the first postgame press conference of her Lynx career. “We had other plans.”
Sunday’s trade marked the first time in Carrington’s career that she had ever been traded mid-season. Yet, she played with a comfort and confidence that made it look like she’d been part of this group since the first day of training camp.
Minnesota’s newest member didn’t arrive a total stranger. Carrington played with both Hiedeman and Courtney Williams as a member of the Connecticut Sun for the first four seasons of her career. She and Alanna Smith go back to their college days at Stanford. And as a competitor, Carrington was a crucial player for that very same Connecticut Sun team that eliminated the Lynx in the first round of the 2023 WNBA Playoffs, and pushed the Lynx to the brink in last year’s Semifinals that Minnesota won in a decisive Game 5.
“It’s been great, I honestly don’t have any complaints,” Carrington said after Tuesday night’s game when asked about the whirlwind that comes with a mid-season trade. “It helped that I’m so familiar with three people on the team. Three people that are a big part of the offense. It’s been great. I’m glad to be a part of a team where we have a goal and everyone is fighting for that goal. You could just feel the energy, every huddle, every possession, this is a group of winners, and I’m a winner too, so it’s great to be part of it.”
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Carrington’s experience with Hiedeman, Smith, and Williams, as well as her reputation as one of the best defensive players in the league coming off a first-team all-defense selection, with a Most Improved Player trophy to boot, endeared her to her new teammates immediately. Her new head coach developed an affinity for her during the stretch of last season’s ‘knock-down, drag-out’ semifinals.
“I can tell you that she’s a competitor times 10,” Lynx head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve said after Carrington’s first official practice in Minneapolis. “Go back and look at Game 5 (of the 2024 WNBA Semifinals) in the Target Center and watch DiJonai’s level of compete, regardless of what the score was, regardless of what was happening, and I really grew in my fandom [of her] during that game in particular.”
The Lynx won that game to punch their ticket to the 2024 WNBA Finals by a final score of 88-77. In a game the Lynx controlled throughout, and led by as many as 24, Carrington didn’t give in, notching team-highs in both points (17) and rebounds (12) as the Sun fought back all night.
“That Game 5, obviously, there was a lot on the line and in the second half it kind of seemed like we rolled over a little bit, but that’s never in my DNA,” Carrington told reporters during her first in-person media availability in Minneapolis. “I’m always gonna compete to the end and I think that’s what stuck out to her, just the fight that I had. It’s not even something that I really think about because that’s just how I play, regardless of if it’s a Game 5 or if it’s Game 1 of the season. I was obviously delighted that she loves that about me, but that’s just me, honestly.”
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The feeling of delight didn’t stop there as Carrington enjoyed her first full day as a Lynx at Minnesota’s practice facility, The Courts at Mayo Clinic Square. A facility that prides itself in offering the best of the best across the board, including one very important category: omelet stations.
“It was awesome,” Carrington said of her first morning in her new professional home. “I walked into a breakfast station, a make your own omelet (station), so it was great. Just to have all the things you need or to possibly need in one space is great.”
When asked if she had received ‘omelet station’ level treatment in previous WNBA stops in Connecticut and Dallas, Carrington added, “I haven’t had that yet.”
For a team and player that both like to run, the promise of protein-rich energy is essential. The signs of what Carrington can do in open space were clear in her first game as a Lynx and will be important fuel for just how far Minnesota can run this season.
“We saw it show itself in the Seattle game, DiJonai has a way about her that when we finish possessions, her first instinct is to run,” Reeve said. “[Getting out in transition] has been a focus of ours, and if you can get ahead, we’ve got guards that are gonna throw it to you. I think she’ll continue to boost that area for sure.”
Carrington heralded the team’s communication, which makes it possible to move quickly and get ahead of defenses.
“This is a team that wants to run,” Carrington said in the moments after the Lynx won in Seattle. “We’re trying to run, we’re moving the ball, moving our bodies, and that’s how I like to play. It’s up-tempo, fast-paced, cut, screen, just continue to move the ball and catch the defense slipping, so it’s been great on that end. And then defensively, I love that everybody is on the same page. We’re really on a string.”