Recently-traded WNBA guard could be key to a title

DiJonai Carrington was having a difficult season with the Dallas Wings; she shot just 35.4% from the field and was relegated to the bench on a team that routinely held one of the WNBA’s worst records. Her 10.4 points and 3 rebounds were a step back from her Most Improved Player campaign with the Connecticut Sun last year.

Then, just before the trade deadline, Carrington was traded to the Minnesota Lynx, owners of the league’s top record. From the jump, it’s been a seamless fit. Carrington is still coming off the bench, but this time, she’s doing it for a championship contender.

It’s only been three games, but her production has improved, too. In Minnesota, Carrington is averaging 13.3 points on 62.5% shooting (up from 10.4 points on 35.4% shooting in Dallas). In Saturday’s win over the New York Liberty, she recorded 15 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals, hitting 6 of 10 shots. That marks her highest-scoring game in nearly two months.

On offense, she’s getting cleaner looks than she did with Dallas, largely as a result of the Lynx’s superior ball movement and spacing. On defense, she’s surrounded by more capable defenders and thus able to better utilize one of her biggest strengths.

“[I’m] just getting back to playing how I know how to play — just playing free, and within a flow, not forcing anything,” Carrington told reporters in her postgame media availability on Saturday. “Nobody forces anything, so it just makes it easier to get open shots, because we’re gonna keep moving it until we get a great shot. We run the floor, everybody’s rotating, and that’s just how I instinctively play, so it’s been a pretty easy transition.”

Last year, Carrington was a member of the WNBA All-Defensive First Team after a season on the Connecticut Sun in which she was tasked with guarding opposing teams’ top guards.

On Saturday, she helped hold Sabrina Ionescu — who has been one of the WNBA’s best guards this season — to just 10 points on 4 of 15 shooting. If the Lynx were to face the Liberty in the Finals, they now have another elite perimeter defender coming off the bench behind Kayla McBride and Courtney Williams — and someone who can immediately hone in on Ionescu.

“I told Cheryl, it’s like a luxury to have that,” McBride said postgame.

For Carrington, the defensive transition from Dallas to Minnesota has been seamless. The Lynx have the league’s best defensive rating at 95.5, and two Defensive Player of the Year candidates in Napheesa Collier and Alanna Smith. Carrington only raises Minnesota’s defensive ceiling.

“At the end of the day, I feel like it’s just about playing hard and competing — making it difficult — and that doesn’t have anything to do with schemes,” Carrington said. “It’s just about heart, and about effort, and about wanting to do that. It’s just about wanting to do that. Everything else falls into place. Everyone does the same schemes, so it’s not like it’s that difficult to adjust to a new team; you’re guarding the same people. It’s just playing hard — I’m able to really lock in on the ball and whoever I’m guarding, because I trust that behind me, everyone will be there rotating and they’ll have my back if I do get clipped. As long as everyone’s doing it at 100% effort, I feel like we’re going to be great.”