UNCASVILLE, CT.—Despite Minnesota’s 77-70 victory to even their WNBA Semifinal series with the Connecticut Sun at one game apiece, the Lynx knew they needed to get their all-world superstar Napheesa Collier more involved to keep marching towards the Finals. Covered by an Alyssa Thomas-sized blanket for most of Game 2, Collier converted just 3-of-14 attempts from the field for nine points.
The Sun may have been daring anyone else besides the MVP runner-up to beat them, but even though that arrangement worked in Game 2 for Minnesota, the Lynx were laser-focused on getting Collier back to her MVPhee level offensively in Game 3.
“Everyone has an off night. I try to contribute in other ways to help the team,” Collier said after Game 3 referring to her offensive output in Game 2. “And I know they’re going to fall. Like I said, they’re shots I take a thousand times and just stay aggressive… It’s the playoffs, so you’ve got to play with an aggressive mindset, not remembering what happened the day before but stay in with the present.”
Collier scored a game-high 26 points on 11-of-19 shooting from the field. She also continued to stuff the stat sheet with 11 rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a blocked shot. Collier’s excellence on the offensive end powered one of the better scoring nights of 2024 for Minnesota, who shot 35-of-61 from the field (57.4%) and scored 90 points against the No. 1 defense in the WNBA, who have only surrendered 90 points in regulation once all season (a 109-91 victory against the Dallas Wings on August 16.
There were more than enough points to go around for the entire Lynx team. Lead guard Courtney Williams built upon her strong second half performance in Game 2, with a wire-to-wire offensive outburst in Game 3. Williams hit on 7-of-10 shots from the field (she’s now hit 12-of-her-last-17 attempts from the field) and dished out eight assists to keep Minnesota more than one step ahead of a Sun team, who didn’t hold the lead since it was 4-2 at the 8:34 mark of the first quarter.
“They’re making adjustments and I think that we’re prepared for their adjustments,” Williams said after Game 3. “…I think just trusting what it is that we do. Trusting my teammates, knowing that if I am getting trapped, I can let it go…We have a way of knowing how to trust each other and be able to make an adjustment whenever they throw different things at us.”
After scoring 80 points in two games in round one against the Phoenix Mercury, Collier managed 28 in her first two games against the Sun. Historic scoring performances wouldn’t be historic if they occurred all the time, and as they’ve done for most of 2024, Collier and the Lynx did show any sense of panic, but rather a sureness that the looks they were generating would come back to bear fruit.
“I thought she had good looks,” Head Coach and President of Basketball Operations Cheryl Reeve said before Game 3. “The first game it felt like that, the second game it felt like that. Phee feels like that. She’s frustrated herself a little bit. It’s the case that you get set up a little bit (with) physicality, other things to think about after two games of that. I suspect, because Phee had a great deal of success going into this series, so my sense is that she’ll get closer to herself today.”
Reeve’s pregame sense of her star player proved to be true and Minnesota enjoyed one of its most efficient nights from the field against a team that prides itself on eliminating its opponents efficiency. When asked during the postgame press conference how her team put up such a performance against such a defense, Reeve answered as efficiently as her team just performed.
“Phee rolling,” Reeve said. “…She never stops moving, and is timely in what she does.”
Collier and the Lynx have rolled to the point where they now find themselves one win away from the WNBA Finals. A team widely ranked ninth out of 12 at the dawn of the season on the brink of being one of the final two teams standing before the lights go out.
“I think we’ve proved who we are all season and we have so much belief in ourselves,” Collier said. “We know what we’re capable of and that’s what we’re trying to go out and show every night. It doesn’t really matter what other people are saying or believing, it just matters what this core team is feeling and we know that we have something special here.”
