WNBA: Napheesa Collier’s historic run highlights Lynx winning streak

The Minnesota Lynx (22-8) have come out of the Olympic break on a strong note, winning five-consecutive games since the resumption of the 2024 WNBA season in mid-August, and having officially clinched a spot in the playoffs, they can now focus on playing for postseason seeding.

Though the Lynx have been in third place in the WNBA standings for much of the regular season, they’re now within a half game of the second-place Connecticut Sun. Back-to-back wins over the Las Vegas Aces have put some distance between Minnesota and the defending champions in the standings, and they’ve also gone a long way in preparing the Lynx for the playoffs, according to head coach Cheryl Reeve.

“More than anything, we wanted to make sure we had the appropriate level of compete,” Reeve told media after her team defeated Las Vegas for the second time in three days. “We talked about this being a really valuable time. This is playoff basketball.” Reeve went on to cite the lack of that competitiveness as a reason why the Lynx fell to Connecticut in last year’s playoffs.

It’s hard not to feel good about Minnesota’s chances in 2024, though, at least not when Napheesa Collier is playing the best basketball of her career. The star forward has been incredible since returning from the Olympics, averaging 25.6 points per game on 66.2 percent shooting from the field while adding 9.2 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game.

In what may have been Collier’s most impressive single-game performance to date, she scored 27 points on 11-of-15 shooting against the Aces, soundly outplaying MVP favorite A’ja Wilson despite being at a height disadvantage in their individual matchup. She also outworked the entire Aces team on the glass, pulling down 18 rebounds herself to Las Vegas’ 17—just the third time in WNBA history such a feat has been accomplished, according to Across the Timeline.

In typical Collier fashion, she was quick to deflect the ensuing praise. “It’s not just me. It’s team defense,” said Collier after the game. “Having that help behind me is so crucial because A’ja is an amazing player and she’s not going to be contained by one person. It’s how well we defended together.”

“Whether she’s being guarded by a team’s best or whether she’s guarding the best, to be a highly successful team, your best player has to be the one you count on in those moments,” Reeve added. There’s no question that the Lynx can count on Collier. She’s likely to repeat as an All-WNBA First Team honoree and is on the very short list of players who could conceivably challenge Wilson for MVP.

The successes of the 2024 Lynx have been defined by contributions up and down the team’s roster, however, especially since the Olympic break. Guard Courtney Williams has excelled as Minnesota’s primary playmaker, averaging 5.4 assists per game; she also is shooting 54 percent from the field in her last five games. Forward Alanna Smith has been just as efficient, shooting 51.6 from the field and 42.9 percent on 3-pointers during that span, while also averaging one steal and 1.4 blocks. Kayla McBride, though she’s cooled off a bit since her torrid start to the season, is still making 2.9 3-pointers per contest, and she’s also been flashing her defensive chops as of late, averaging a team-high 2.4 steals since the break.

“I’ve said this multiple times: Any one of us can have 30 [points] every night, and that’s the beauty of our team and how spread out our talent is,” Collier mentioned after scoring 30 herself in front of a home crowd that included Lynx legend Maya Moore. It’s a philosophy that Reeve tries to instill in her team every year, and with just a quarter of the Lynx’s regular-season games remaining in 2024, it’s looking like it’s been a success.

Lynx shore up frontcourt depth with trade for Hines-Allen

The Lynx were buyers at the 2024 WNBA trade deadline, sending guard Olivia Époupa, forward Sika Koné and a second-round pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft to the Washington Mystics in exchange for veteran forward Myisha Hines-Allen.

Hines-Allen, an All-WNBA Second Team honoree in 2020, was averaging eight points and 4.7 rebounds per game for Washington at the time of the trade, and her addition bolsters a Lynx frontcourt that had been in need of a more physical presence. It didn’t take long for Hines-Allen to get acclimated; in Minnesota’s most recent win over the Indiana Fever, Hines-Allen played the entire fourth quarter, earning praise from teammates and coaches alike.

“We were trying to get breaks from guarding post players, and [Myisha] is a great defender, so it was nice to have her be able to come in and affect things right away,” said Collier after the game. “We needed her physicality, plain and simple,” added Reeve. “We needed her willingness to compete in the post and her willingness to compete for rebounds.”

Hines-Allen’s willingness to do the dirty work has also opened up new lineup possibilities for the Lynx, with Collier shifting from power forward to small forward and away from guarding bigger, stronger players. It’s an opportunity that Hines-Allen is grateful for, despite still being new to the team. “I’ve been in the league for seven seasons. I know how to set a screen and I know how to roll,” Hines-Allen told local media. “It’s just basketball at the end of the day.”

It helps having a familiarity with Reeve and how she wants her team to play. Hines-Allen said that there was mutual interest between her and the Lynx when she was a free agent in 2022, and that the Lynx currently run many of the same offensive sets she was accustomed to in Washington. Trading for Hines-Allen was a win-now move for Minnesota, and the team will be expecting her to play a big role as it fights for playoff positioning.