It took all of two practices in April for Cheryl Reeve to truly believe that this might work. The new pieces she had acquired through the WNBA offseason — not through high-profile signings or super-team denominations — and the remaining players developed in Minneapolis over the past few years might actually pan out in a way that felt like seasons past.

Her college playing career at La Salle over, Cheryl Reeve was a graduate assistant coach at her alma mater in 1988 for coach John Miller. “I’ll never forget it,” Reeve said Thursday at Barclays Center,