Napheesa Collier and the Minnesota Lynx are red-hot
Napheesa Collier is putting her name among the best in the league while leading the Minnesota Lynx back from the bottom of the WNBA standings.
Collier scored at least 30 points for the third time in four games to lead Minnesota to a fourth straight victory, 90-83 Wednesday night over the Indiana Fever. The 26-year-old, who missed the majority of last season after giving birth to her first child, finished with 32 points and eight rebounds.
Her performance came shortly after being named the Western Conference Player of the Week, having scored 80 points in three games, including 34- and 31-point efforts in back-to-back wins over Seattle.
Collier is third in the WNBA in scoring (22.6 points per game) and 11th in rebounding (7.8 rebounds per game). The only other player in the WNBA averaging at least 20 points and seven rebounds per game is New York's Breanna Stewart, who is averaging 23.3 points and 9.9 rebounds.
The Lynx have been on a roll since starting the season with six straight losses. They've won eight of the last 11 and are now 8-9 overall with a chance to get back to .500 when they host Phoenix on Friday night.
Minnesota enters Thursday's action in a three-way tie with Chicago and Dallas for the sixth, seventh and eighth in the WNBA. But they're just a half-game behind Atlanta (8-8) for fifth and 1.5 games behind Washington (9-7) for fourth.
They should be Phoenix (league worst 3-13 record), which would set the stage for the ultimate test when the Lynx host the Las Vegas Aces at Target Center on Sunday. The Aces are 16-1 and outscoring opponents by an average of 15 points per game.
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.