The Minnesota Lynx may have demolished the Las Vegas Aces, 111-58 on Saturday, but all the attention after the game was on the status of All-Star forward and MVP candidate Napheesa Collier who suffered an injury late in the third quarter. Collier exited the game and did not return, and head coach Cheryl Reeve spoke pregame about her decision to keep the star forward in the game despite the Lynx being up comfortably, as per Jack Maloney of CBS Sports.
“I don’t think about those things. It’s the third quarter of a game on someone else’s floor, I don’t think the game is over. I don’t think like that,” Reeve said. “She had a sub there and she wasn’t going to play in the fourth quarter, sometimes these things happen. And I get it, people are going to rail on me, and that’s part of sitting in the seat that I’m sitting in, but we did what we think is right. Sometimes these things happen and it’s unfortunate, but hopefully she’ll be okay.”
Either that Cheryl Reeve’s postgame comments on her decision, there was no immediate injury update for Napheesa Collier and her status for the Lynx moving forward. It was late in the third quarter against the Aces when the Lynx were on a fast break. Collier came running down court and seemingly just crumpled to the floor. She was helped off the court and back to the locker room and ruled out due to what was being called an ankle injury.
While an official diagnosis on Collier probably won’t surface until early this coming week, it certainly wasn’t a good sign for Lynx fans who have championship aspirations this season. Following the win against the Aces, the Lynx improved to a league-leading 24-5 and they were the favorite to lock up the No. 1 overall seed and have homecourt throughout the playoffs.
Collier was a huge part of that, turning in an MVP caliber season while being named to her fifth All-Star appearance. She had appeared in 25 games coming into Saturday, at a little over 33 minutes per game. She was averaging a career-high 23.8 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.7 blocked shots with splits of 53.7 percent shooting from the field, 35.9 percent shooting from the three-point line and 90.6 percent shooting from the three-point line.
