Napheesa Collier resumed her MVP campaign Sunday night as she returned from an ankle sprain that had kept her out for the past three weeks. It didn’t take much time for her to get back up to speed as she scored 32 points on 11-of-16 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds in the Minnesota Lynx’s 97-84 win over the Indiana Fever.
“I had to knock some of the rust off,” Collier said, joking that teammate Courtney Williams would have finished with 11 assists if she hadn’t missed her first few shots. “It feels like you’re on the outside when you’re not playing. I’m having so much FOMO, so it feels good to be on the court with them again.”
Williams added, “I told [Collier] before the game, I’m sick of taking 18, 20 shots. I’m ready to be back to 10 or 12. So it feels good to have Phee back.”
Collier was injured in the third quarter of the Lynx’s Aug. 2 game against the Las Vegas Aces. Imaging revealed she avoided a major injury, sources told ESPN, and the issue ultimately held her out seven games. Minnesota went 5-2 without Collier during that stretch.
The crowd erupted as Collier was introduced into the starting lineup, and her team was just as excited to have her back. Collier managed to play 31 minutes.
“She’s that darn good,” Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said. “Obviously, she was ready to play. Having her play makes it easier for everyone else. We can all settle back into our roles and things we like to do.”
Since Collier went down, the Lynx made three roster additions, including trading for DiJonai Carrington at the trade deadline.
Now finally healthy, Williams called this Minnesota team “a real problem” as they head toward the postseason.
The Lynx found themselves trailing the Fever by as much as 10 points in the first quarter but slowly clawed their way back in. Then, in the final two minutes of the second quarter, the Lynx put together an 11-0 run to retake the lead.
With 77 seconds to go in the first half, Collier hit a turnaround jump shot — her 13th and 14th points of the night — to give Minnesota its first lead since the first 20 seconds of the game. When the Lynx returned from halftime, they never slowed back down.
“It all stemmed from being more active defensively, that’s how we got going,” Reeve said. “We just had more flow … that second quarter, we felt that shift. We felt that shift in how we were playing, and I felt like we held that for most of the rest of the game.”
With just seven games left on their regular-season schedule, the Lynx (30-7) have the best record in the WNBA and hold a six-game advantage over the Atlanta Dream in the standings. The Lynx are the only team to have clinched a playoff spot.
