Mercury Coach Breaks Silence on Napheesa Collier Injury, Defends Alyssa Thomas

The biggest news to come out of the Phoenix Mercury’s Game 3 win against the Minnesota Lynx was the collision between Napheesa Collier and Alyssa Thomas in the final seconds of the game, injuring Collier’s ankle and now keeping her out of Sunday’s Game 4 matchup, where the Lynx will be fighting to save their season.

The incident between Collier and Thomas, which happened while Thomas attempted to steal the ball away and then sent Collier crashing down to the floor, has been heavily scrutinized in the days that have followed.

Thomas wasn’t called for a foul on the play, which has sparked such fervent discourse that even the official NBA referees’ X account had to weigh in, defending the official’s no-call decision.

Minnesota head coach Cheryl Reeve was ejected from the game after unleashing on the referees when Collier went down, and her outburst was so severe that she has been suspended for Game 4, leaving the Lynx without their head coach or best player while facing elimination.

Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts has now spoken up about the incident in his press conference ahead of Sunday’s game, giving a two-fold response to everything that’s transpired.

“You hate to see any player, especially a player [Collier] of her caliber, to go down in a series like this,” Tibbetts said (via Kendra Andrews of ESPN).

Regarding the vitriol that some have had for Thomas’ role in the matter, Tibbett had a strong statement in favor of his forward.

“If anyone has a glimmer to think that AT [Thomas] made that play on purpose, that it was a dirty play, it’s just straight up out of line.”

Thomas and Collier have been the biggest individual matchup of this series. Each team’s best player and the two and three finishers behind A’ja Wilson in 2025 MVP voting, the two forwards were naturally slated to guard one another. It was a physical battle between the two stars long before Collier’s injury.

The Lynx have a massive task ahead of them, stopping the Mercury in their tracks to force a Game 5 without Collier in the game. She has been the team’s leading scorer and rebounder in the 2025 postseason, continuing the dominance she exhibited in the regular season.

Though it’s possible Minnesota could be playing with renewed fire, considering the chaos that unfolded at the end of their last game. Either way, it’s win or go home for the WNBA’s one-seed, and Collier will have to watch from the sidelines as it all goes down.