MINNEAPOLIS — If Napheesa Collier’s demeanor were placed on a graph, there would be no major variations. No big spikes, no wide waves. Sure, she’ll occasionally dial up to “Spicy Phee” as warranted, and Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve would like to see a little more seasoning at times. But Collier never dips down.
“Generally speaking, she’s about as close to that line as you can get,” Reeve said.
That consistency has continued through Collier’s first WNBA Finals, a series the MVP runner-up believes will reign as one of the most memorable and historic in league history. It’s already the first series with multiple comebacks of at least 15 points. The first three games were a roller-coaster of emotions, with ups and downs that can jostle the demeanor of most first-time participants.
Not Collier.
“It’s probably one of the times that I think we’re going to find it the most valuable,” Reeve said on Thursday at Target Center. “When things don’t go your way, when you maybe feel as a team as we did after the game [that we] let an opportunity get away, the most Phee will say is, ‘Yeah, that was frustrating.’”
She may have also groaned, Bridget Carleton said. Then she flushed it and moved on to Game 4 on Friday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).
“I just think that’s an energy that her teammates will draw from in the best of ways,” Reeve said.
The Lynx are on the brink of elimination after playing a strong Game 3 in which they fell short in the final minutes. After leading for a mere 5.1 seconds of regulation and 3:17 overall in the first 85 minutes of the series, the Lynx built the double-digit early lead they wanted and found more offensive performances around Collier. It evaporated, though, and not enough shots fell in the final minutes. New York led for two minutes, 13 seconds in Game 3 to pull within 40 minutes of the franchise’s first championship.
A true understanding of the ups and downs is often only found by experience. The Liberty, many of whom noted after winning Game 3 that the next game would be the hardest, played together in the Finals last year. They lost to the Las Vegas Aces, who lost the Finals in 2020. It’s tough to find a WNBA champion without a veteran leader who had experienced the season’s final series at least once prior to winning it.
“The Finals is a win-or-go-home type of vibe, so everything is upped,” said Lynx guard Courtney Williams, who lost the five-game 2019 Finals with the Connecticut Sun. “The intensity, the sense of urgency, everything. All the small details. It’s just a whole ’nother level.”
Williams learned the mental toughness of staying on a solid line throughout a series. Lynx reserve guard Natisha Hiedeman was a rookie on that Sun team. Kayla McBride’s final season in Vegas was the team’s breakthrough Finals appearance in 2020. Myisha Hines-Allen, Minnesota’s midseason acquisition via trade, won the 2019 title with Washington after losing the Finals with them in 2018 as a rookie.
“Playoff basketball is just different,” Collier said. “Everyone’s mindset is so much more aggressive than normally in the regular season. The play is a lot more physical and the stakes are a lot higher.”
Reeve told her team ahead of Game 3 to treat it as a best-of-three series, and the Lynx wanted to take Game 1. Instead, the Liberty pulled a switcheroo and pulled off a comeback win in similar fashion to how the Lynx went up to start the series. Collier’s 22 points led the offensive effort in Game 3, but she missed easy looks that usually fall for her. McBride bounced back from a Game 2 lull and hit five much-needed 3s. More pivotal was her defense on Ionescu, who was 0-of-5 on 3s while being guarded by McBride in the Finals until the final two shots Wednesday, per ESPN Research. Bridget Carleton put up her strongest game of the series in a return to form for the Lynx’s collective approach.
The Coach of the Year said Thursday she felt a “bit of impatience” in the offense and didn’t love all of the shots her team attempted against the Liberty’s length. The Lynx shot 40% on 30 rim attempts, she said. And they fell short late.
“Do I like rim attempts? Yeah,” Reeve said. “But I also think there’s a fine line between courage and stupidity. When you get there and there’s a 6-[foot]-6 [player] coming, we’ve got to throw a fake or something.”
Minnesota’s defense couldn’t hold on into the third quarter, allowing the Liberty to fight back within one with a 26-19 frame. That effort has to come for a full 40 minutes to force Liberty turnovers, as the Lynx did in the first quarter of Game 3.
“They threw as much as they could out and I thought it fatigued them,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said. “It was hard work for them.”
The back injury to Alanna Smith hurt the most and will be a key to Game 4. Smith was knocked down in the paint by Jonquel Jones, the Liberty’s 6-6 rim protector, and the Lynx listed her return as questionable at halftime. The All-Defensive second-team selection started the second half, but didn’t look herself and scored only two points on free throws. Her defense on Jones, who scored four in the first half and nine massive late points in the second, is the key reason the Lynx won the regular-season series (2-1), the Commissioner’s Cup championship and the first game of the Finals.
“They’re going to have to drag me off the floor tomorrow if they think that I’m not going to play,” Smith said. “It’s the WNBA Finals. We can worry about the aches and pains afterwards.”
The winner of Game 3 has won the best-of-five format six of 10 times. Since the best-of-five format began in 2005, seven Finals have gone to a Game 5.
“The beauty for us is it wasn’t a three-game series,” Reeve said. “It’s a five-game series. We got 80 minutes left and I’m confident in our group’s ability to move on. Move on from these feelings.”
Reeve and the Minnesota franchise are well-versed in how to handle these situations. They won it all in 2015 after losing Game 1, lost in 2016 when they won Game 1 and won in 2017, again losing the first game. They went down 2-1 to Los Angeles in 2017, forced a Game 5 and a balanced attack from Minnesota’s five Hall of Famers brought home a fourth ring in seven seasons.
Rebekkah Brunson, one of those stars and an assistant for Reeve, told Collier ahead of the Finals to “not shy away from the moment” because a return to the top is never guaranteed. She told her to stay present, don’t think about the high stakes and just play basketball. That’s an easy task for the rarely wavering Collier.
