How U.S. women’s basketball jelled ahead of Paris Olympics

Every championship run has its moment.

For the U.S. women’s basketball team, Monday’s practice might end up being the catalyst that propels the Americans to their eighth consecutive gold medal at the Paris Olympics.

After resting Sunday following a 10-hour flight from Phoenix to London, Team USA held its first practice since losing to Team WNBA in the WNBA All-Star Game over the weekend. And it was everything coach Cheryl Reeve wanted from her squad.

“I thought it was a practice that we needed,” she said in London. “You don’t get many opportunities and I loved our approach. … There were a lot of intangibles that occurred in the practice that were great for us.”

Reeve described the practice as “very active,” but A’ja Wilson said it felt more like “we died” because there was “a lot of running.” The session got the players’ bodies moving, it got them up and down the court, it got them locked in.

“This is Day 1,” Wilson said. “This is Practice 1, Step 1 to the standard and where we want to go, so we can’t really take a lot of practices off or lightly.”

That practice set the tone.

“We’re going for No. eight,” forward Napheesa Collier said. “No one wants to be the one to break that streak.”

Immediately after Team WNBA upset Team USA on Saturday night, Reeve wasn’t sure what she had learned about her squad.

But she needed to know if her players learned anything from the loss and how — or if — it would fuel them and get them to buy in to what Reeve and her staff were trying to do.