‘Pivotal’ Napheesa Collier Return to Lynx Lineup Should Terrify the Rest of the WNBA
It’s scary to think that the team with the best record in the WNBA could get even better. That’s exactly what happened when Napheesa Collier made her regular-season debut for the Minnesota Lynx on Wednesday against the Seattle Storm.
Collier hadn’t played in a game since the 2025 semifinals against the Phoenix Mercury. She had to undergo surgery on both ankles during the offseason, which forced her to miss Unrivaled and Team USA action as well as training camp and almost the whole first three months of the season.
She got off to a slow start in her debut—as is to be expected from someone who was out for so long—but quickly found her footing and played like the two-time MVP runner-up she is. Collier finished the 86-76 win with 24 points on 9-20 shooting from the field, 10 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal in just 22 minutes. She led the Lynx in field-goal attempts, points, and rebounds. Her contributions were crucial as Courtney Williams finished with 0 points and Olivia Miles only scored 13 on 5-15 shooting. Collier was a huge difference-maker.
“We had a defensive rating of 93.7, I think it was for this game,” Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said in the postgame media availability, per a video on the team’s YouTube channel. “It’s been a while since we’ve been able to say that. So, I’m happy to go into the break knowing that it still matters to them and to find a way to sort of gut out the second game on the road against the same team, guard play not being what we’re used to. You have to win anyway. Phee’s return obviously was pivotal in that, our ability to get the win.”
Teams have struggled to beat Minnesota all season long. It will be much more difficult now that Collier is back and playing well—even though Reeve cautioned not to expect this kind of production out of Collier every game as she finds her rhythm with the team.
“This was a big step getting her back on the floor,” Reeve said. “Now, like I said, it’s just continuing to build, her catching up conditioning-wise with the rest of the league cause they’re all in mid-season form, and she’s got to catch up, and so there will be ups and downs. There’s no doubt about it.”
Still, it’s scary for the rest of the league to know that the number-one team in the standings got yet another boost.
Collier outperformed expectations in her debut
Ankle injuries are tricky to come back from because they dictate so much in terms of burst and explosiveness, and it can be difficult to build up trust in the ankle’s ability to remain stable and absorb force from running and jumping.
Still, Collier, after less than a month of full practice, looked like she hadn’t even missed a beat. It was a better debut than the Lynx could have hoped for—or expected.
“She found her spots,” Reeve said. “She’s just a really good basketball player, and in the second half we did a little bit more, putting her in actions as she got a little more comfortable. It was probably above anything I could have expected.”
Dominque Malonga and Awa Fam are one of the most interesting young frontcourts in the WNBA alongside the Washington Mystics’ duo of Shakira Austin and Kiki Iriafen, but their youth and inexperience still made them a favorable matchup for Collier.
After the All-Star break, the Lynx will face the Toronto Tempo twice. Toronto greatly lacks depth and experience in the frontcourt, which makes them a great matchup for Collier to get in a rhythm before facing the Indiana Fever with Aliyah Boston, LA’s frontcourt duo of Nneka Ogwumike and Dearica Hamby, and A’ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces.
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Elaine Blum covers women’s basketball for On SI from Europe. She has been writing about women's hoops since 2023 and holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism and a master’s degree in American Studies with a focus on women’s and gender studies. She started playing basketball when she was 10 years old and won several league and state championships at the youth and senior level.