Huge game from Napheesa Collier inches Lynx closer to playoffs
Just three games remain on the schedule for the Minnesota Lynx after they beat the Atlanta Dream 91-85 in overtime Friday night in Minneapolis.
Napheesa Collier was a force, finishing with 27 points, 17 rebounds and four blocks. Kayla McBride scored 20 for Minnesota and rookie center Dorka Juhasz stuffed the stat sheet with 12 points, 16 rebounds and six assists.
The win gets Minnesota to 18-19 overall while Atlanta falls to 17-20. That's critical as the WNBA playoff race enters the final nine days of the regular season. The Lynx play Sunday at home against Phoenix and then finish on the road Friday against Chicago and Sunday, Sept. 10 at Indiana.
Entering play Saturday, the Lynx are fifth in the WNBA playoff race. If the season ended now, Minnesota would go on the road for a best-of-three playoff series against Dallas in the 5-4 matchup.
There's an outside shot Minnesota passes Dallas for fourth place, but it would require the Lynx winning out and Dallas losing all four of its games.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.