{"id":173547,"date":"2025-08-25T05:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T05:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/173547\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T05:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T05:28:09","slug":"napheesa-collier-shines-in-return-from-injury-as-minnesota-lynx-defeat-indiana-fever-97-84","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/173547\/","title":{"rendered":"Napheesa Collier shines in return from injury as Minnesota Lynx defeat Indiana Fever 97-84"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"rt-Text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.startribune.com\/sports\/lynx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.startribune.com\/sports\/lynx\">The Lynx<\/a> continued their push for the top seed in the WNBA playoffs and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.startribune.com\/minnesota-mvp-award-winners-lynx-timberwolves-wild-twins-vikings-napheesa-collier\/601372598\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.startribune.com\/minnesota-mvp-award-winners-lynx-timberwolves-wild-twins-vikings-napheesa-collier\/601372598\">Napheesa Collier<\/a> returned from an ankle injury to continue her campaign for the league\u2019s MVP award Sunday night at Target Center.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rt-Text\">The two pursuits once again aligned nicely as the Lynx defeated the Indiana Fever 97-84.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rt-Text\">Collier received a loud ovation when announced with the starters before the game, and she was efficient from the start, making five of her first six shots.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rt-Text\">She hadn\u2019t played since Aug. 2 because of an ankle injury, yet she finished with 32 points on 11-for-16 shooting with nine rebounds, two assists and two steals. She was a game-best plus-24 for the WNBA-best Lynx (30-7), who went 5-2 in Collier\u2019s absence, including a 95-90 victory at Indiana on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rt-Text\">But MVP wasn\u2019t the acronym she cited, saying watching from the sideline had given her \u201cFOMO\u201d (fear of missing out).<\/p>\n<p class=\"rt-Text\">\u201cWhen we are playing our defense, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anyone who can beat us,\u201d said Collier, who suffered a sprained right ankle during a collision with teammate Alanna Smith in a game Aug. 2 at Las Vegas. \u201cIt\u2019s a good time to be a Lynx. \u2026 I just felt really good.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rt-Text\">Asked whether she could have asked for anything more, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.startribune.com\/cheryl-reeve-minnesota-lynx-wnba-souhan\/601453123\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.startribune.com\/cheryl-reeve-minnesota-lynx-wnba-souhan\/601453123\">Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve<\/a> said, \u201cSure \u2014 you can always imagine more. She\u2019s that darn good. Happy to have her back, and obviously she was ready to play. Having her play makes it easier for everybody else.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"rt-Text\">Reserve center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.startribune.com\/minnesota-lynx-russian-players-maria-kliundikova-anastasiia-olairi-kosu-cheryl-reeve\/601385437\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.startribune.com\/minnesota-lynx-russian-players-maria-kliundikova-anastasiia-olairi-kosu-cheryl-reeve\/601385437\">Maria Kliundikova<\/a> was the driving force behind the Lynx\u2019s second-quarter surge. In eight first-half minutes, Kliundikova produced 11 points on 5-for-6 shooting with a rebound and an assist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lynx continued their push for the top seed in the WNBA playoffs and Napheesa Collier returned from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":173548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-173547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115087756870820087","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}