Napheesa

Collier

The Lynx will play Game 4, which they need to win to keep their season alive, without Napheesa Collier after she injured her left ankle late in Friday’s Game 3 defeat. As was the case when Collier missed time during the regular season, Shepard will move into the starting lineup. In addition to Shepard’s role change, Maria Kliundikova should have more minutes available off the bench.

With its season on the line, Minnesota will play Sunday’s game without its head coach and best player. Collier injured her left ankle during the final minute of Friday’s loss to Phoenix, with head coach Cheryl Reeve being ejected in the immediate aftermath for arguing that her player was fouled. Reeve’s conduct in leaving the court and during her postgame press conference earned the coach a one-game suspension. As for Collier’s replacement, Jessica Shepard was the choice during the regular season, but Maria Kliundikova’s playing time has increased in this series.

Reeve was ejected during the final minute of Friday’s loss to Phoenix after coming onto the court to argue that a foul should have been called on Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas. While Reeve picking up her second technical foul of the night triggered the ejection, not leaving the court promptly and comments made during her postgame press conference prompted the suspension for Game 4. Minnesota, which trails the series two games to one, could potentially be without Napheesa Collier as well, as she suffered an ankle injury during the play that led to Reeve’s ejection.

In the same way that Hiedeman finished the regular season, she dazzled as a scorer on Friday in Game 3 of the second round matchup with the Mercury. The veteran guard was particularly productive in the second and third quarters, where she combined to score 15 of her points on the night. Hiedeman’s scoring total set a new personal best for this 2025 postseason, which came on the heels of a zero-point outing in Minnesota’s Game 2 loss. The Lynx would benefit from a repeat performance on Sunday from Hiedeman in their attempt to keep their season alive, especially given Napheesa Collier’s injury sustained at the end of Game 3.

Collier’s productive night ended early on Friday after suffering an ankle injury with under 30 seconds to play. Down 76-80, the Lynx tried to execute a side-out-of-bounds play, but as the Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas poked the ball away from Collier, the MVP runner-up rolled her ankle before being helped to the locker room at the next deadball. She did not return for the remaining 21.8 seconds, and now her status for Sunday’s Game 4 will be one to monitor. She exited Friday’s loss as Minnesota’s second-leading scorer.

Williams played at an incredibly high level on Tuesday night where she was three rebounds and an assist off a triple-double. Her mid-range pull-ups fell and she distributed the ball well to Kayla McBride, Napheesa Collier and Alanna Smith. Williams has historically been one of the better rebounding guards in the league as she uses her impressive vertical leap to crash the glass. But her downfall was the seven turnovers her play produced, three of which happened in the third quarter when the Mercury outscored the Lynx 22-14 as they mounted their comeback after they were down by as many as 20 points on Tuesday night.

Collier ran out of gas as the game went on as she was tasked with scoring the ball at a high level while having to guard the Mercury’s most physical player Alyssa Thomas at the other end. Collier scored 16 of her 24 points in the first half but struggled to score the ball with ease in the second half because of the more aggressive and physical defense that Thomas and the Mercury played on her. With 3.4 seconds left in regulation, Collier got a good look at a 18-foot shot to win her team the game but the shot just didn’t fall and as a result the game went to overtime.

Despite not earning MVP honors on Sunday, the award’s runner-up logged a productive line in the Game 1 victory. Collier set the tone early and dropped 10 points in the opening quarter before picking her spots the rest of the way on efficient shooting. She battled on the offensive and defensive glass throughout and got involved from beyond the arc as a scorer. Ultimately, Collier didn’t score a point in the fourth quarter, but her overall offensive production was still significant and beneficial to the Lynx in the win. She’ll look to build off Sunday’s performance and help lead Minnesota to another victory on Tuesday.

Collier followed up a strong Game 1 performance with another on Wednesday. The MVP-hopeful provided similarly strong shooting efficiency while contributing as a passer and tallying a team-high in rebounds. On top of her overall production, Collier’s biggest moment perhaps came in the closing minutes of the game, where she hit a long two-point jumper in the corner to give the Lynx a lead that they wouldn’t surrender the rest of the way. As Collier did in this opening-round series against Golden State, she’ll look to lead Minnesota to another series win in the second round against either New York or Phoenix.

The first-seeded Lynx dominated the eighth-seeded Valkyries behind a stellar performance from their MVP-hopeful. After an unspectacular first two quarters, Collier hit another level in the third quarter, scoring nine points on 4-of-4 shooting to help turn a seven-point Lynx halftime lead into 21 points by the start of the fourth frame. From there, Collier’s services were no longer needed — she didn’t log any fourth-quarter minutes as Minnesota cruised to a 29-point victory. She finished with a team-high in points and will have a chance to help the Lynx close out the series in Wednesday’s Game 2 at Golden State.