PHOENIX — The No. 1 seed Minnesota Lynx are on the brink of elimination and they may be without their star forward Napheesa Collier.
The Lynx dropped Game 3 of their WNBA playoff semifinal series to the Phoenix Mercury 84-76 on Friday in Phoenix and are down 2-1 in the best-of-five round. To add insult to insult to injury, Collier went down with an apparent left ankle injury with 21.8 seconds remaining in the game. Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said Collier ‘probably has a fracture,’ putting her status for Game 4 on Sunday in jeopardy.
‘When you let the physicality happen, people get hurt, there’s fights and this is the look that our league wants for some reason,’ Reeve said in a profanity-laced postgame rant. ‘One of the best players in the league shot zero free throws. Zero. And she had five fouls… She got her shoulder pulled out and finished the game with her leg being taken out. And probably has a fracture.’
Here’s what we know about Collier’s injury:
Is Napheesa Collier playing vs. Mercury on Sunday?
It’s not clear if Collier will play in Game 4 on Sunday.
Napheesa Collier injury timeline
The incident happened when Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas cleanly swiped the ball from Collier with 23.8 seconds left in Game 3 as the Mercury led 82-76. Thomas appeared to make incidental contact with Collier’s knee, resulting in Collier turning her left ankle. Collier went down clutching her ankle and did not return. No foul was called on the play, infuriating Reeve and leading to her second technical foul and subsequent ejection.
Collier was previously sidelined for seven games with a right ankle sprain after landing awkwardly in Minnesota’s blowout victory over the Las Vegas Aces on Aug. 2. Minnesota went 5-2 during that stretch.The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
