MINNEAPOLIS — The “MVP-MVP-MVP” chants for Napheesa Collier began around the 6:30 mark in the final quarter and rained down on the floor throughout the final minutes. At that point, Collier had already accumulated 35 of her eventual 42 points, setting both her career high and a franchise record in scoring for the second time in four days.
By the time Collier checked out with less than a minute to go in the game, she raised her hands to the crowd at Target Center, and on command, they rose to their feet and cheered for their MVP. Because while she might’ve finished second in voting to Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson, who won the award unanimously, the fans in Minnesota are backing their own MVP or MVPhee, as many signs read.
Behind Collier’s 42 points, the Minnesota Lynx downed the Phoenix Mercury, 101-88, sending Minnesota back to the WNBA semifinals for the first time since the 2020 bubble season. With Collier playing at this level, the expectations from its fanbase to bring home a championship are as high as it has been since the aughts, when the Lynx won four in seven seasons.
“Phee just has the ability to know, each game, what it is she’s going to get and how she’s going to get it,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. “She’s like an amoeba that if they’re going to let her be in the paint, then she’s going to find herself in the paint, she’s going to screen, she’s going to roll. If the paint is going to be more difficult, she understands how to play in movement and be on the perimeter.”
Collier worked with deftness against a bevy of Mercury defenders that threw different looks at her. After this season and especially after her huge performance on Sunday night, she was Phoenix’s No. 1 priority to slow, and she knew it. Ahead of the game, Reeve had joked with the team that Collier wasn’t going to be able to get 38 points again that night (implying: Everyone else better step up, too).
And when Collier finally came off the floor in the fourth quarter, Collier pulled Reeve aside.
“She said, ‘Coach, you were right,’” Reeve said. “Yeah, she had 42.”
It was in the third quarter, where Minnesota has been excellent this season, where the Lynx separated themselves and provided enough runs that Phoenix couldn’t quite dig out of a hole. Both Collier and Courtney Williams scored eight points apiece while the team caught some fire from beyond the arc, going 3 of 5 in the quarter after shooting 4 of 15 from beyond the arc in the first half.
All five of Minnesota’s starters finished in double digits and all but six of the Lynx’s 34 field goals were assisted. And after a Game 1 in which Reeve was frustrated with the Lynx’s defensive execution, the team responded by being more active defensively, forcing 15 turnovers and scoring 24 points off those giveaways.
But it wasn’t just Collier who received an ovation on Wednesday night. Looming large over the game were the questions swirling about whether or not this would be Mercury guard Diana Taurasi’s final WNBA game. During the final two weeks of the regular season, the Mercury had been tweeting cryptic “If this is it” tweets about its 20-season vet and the franchise seemed to be leaving breadcrumbs along the way that these finals games could, in fact, be Taurasi’s swan song.
When Taurasi fouled out in the fourth quarter, the game paused as she exited the court, all smiles.
A standing ovation for Diana Taurasi in the Target Center 👏 pic.twitter.com/JzQxpEbQYa
— WNBA (@WNBA) September 26, 2024
“Twenty years is incredible. … Twenty years at a high level,” Reeve said of Taurasi. “One of the all-time great competitors in any sport.”
Required reading
(Photo: Stephen Maturen / Getty Images)
