Cheryl Reeve had a pointed conversation with Napheesa Collier at the conclusion of the 2023 Lynx season.
Collier said “One-on-one defense” was heavily discussed. Not that Collier was anything less than excellent on that end of the floor. She was selected to the WNBA All-Defense second team for the second time in her career last season. But that wasn’t good enough. Not if Minnesota was to raise its ceiling toward championship contention.
Collier couldn’t just be great — she had to be one of the very best. And Reeve knew it.
“She’s like, ‘If we’re going to win, you have to be in contention for MVP and (Defensive Player of the Year),’ ” Collier recalled. “That’s the conversation we had, because she knows obviously we have to have elite people on both sides of the floor, and defense was something that we were really lacking in last year.”
Fast forward a year, and Collier was the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year and the runner-up in MVP voting. She anchors a defense that’s the best in the league at the moment. The byproduct of it all? Minnesota will play a winner-takes-the-title Game 5 on Sunday in New York.
The full breadth of Collier’s impact has been on display throughout these playoffs. In the first round, she was dominant offensively, averaging 40 points per game in a two-game sweep of Phoenix. Collier dominated offensively again in the final three games of Minnesota’s semifinal series against Connecticut, while also living on the glass.
And then there are these WNBA Finals, where the 28-year-old has been tasked with slowing down one of the game’s greatest offensive players, Breanna Stewart. As is the case with every other task Collier gets assigned, the forward is getting the job done.
Stewart is shooting 34% from the field through four games. Collier held the two-time MVP to just one field goal in her final 10 shots in regulation and overtime in Minnesota’s thrilling Game 1 victory. On Friday, Stewart was a woeful 5 for 21 from the field. Her 11 points in Game 4 tied Stewart’s lowest scoring output since New York’s season opener in early May.
Collier has three-plus steals in all four Finals games. It’s been nothing short of a defensive domination for the Lynx forward, who will write one final chapter of her epic duel with Stewart on Sunday.
“It’s really tough,” Collier said of the matchup. “I think that we’re both great players. It was Game 4, and we played each other, what, four times in the regular season? It’s going to get harder and harder each time to get those shots that you normally get. Everyone is out there to do the same thing: make shots hard. That’s my goal every time. She’s a great player, one of the best players in the world, but you have to make it as hard as you can for her.”
All while still being an integral part of Minnesota’s offense. Friday was a quiet performance for Collier in terms of offensive output, and yet she still had 14 points, nine rebounds and four assists. She’s been Minnesota’s leading scorer twice in these Finals.
Collier bears the team’s heaviest burden and does so without a break.
Lynx guard Courtney Williams was seen gasping for air every time the camera panned in her direction throughout the game. Stewart looked visibly worn down, even on a night where she had to sit with some foul trouble.
“Everybody’s tired,” Lynx guard Kayla McBride said. “We’re playing every other day now.”
Collier is playing every minute of these contests. She logged another full 40 on Friday, two days after also doing so in Game 3. She had only Saturday to recoup, and that included a flight halfway across the country to New York. There’s no rest for the weary.
Collier is used to this. She played 37 minutes in Game 4 of the semifinals in Connecticut on Oct. 6, then notched another 37 minutes in the win-or-go-home Game 5 on Oct. 8 in Minnesota. On Oct. 10, Collier played 43 minutes in Minnesota’s Game 1 overtime victory in New York — that’s 117 minutes of playing time in a five-day span that featured two flights.
No problem.
“This is the Finals,” Collier said in her postgame, on-court television interview after Game 1. “No one cares if you’re tired.”
Still, there’s something remarkable about Collier’s current workload. She’s played four complete games in these playoffs, on top of her 43-minute showing in Game 1. And every minute features heavy stress on both ends of the floor.
And yet Iron Woman’s power source never seems to wane.
What’s her secret?
“I can’t lie, I feel like just naturally I get conditioned pretty well,” Collier said.
OK, but, like, there’s got to be something.
“I played soccer … for a really long time, like, the first 10 years of my life,” Collier said. “So that’s, obviously, naturally like a running sport.”
Well there you have it.
“I think also just the mentality of going as hard as you can all the time,” Collier said. “That naturally gets you into good shape, too, because you’re working as hard as you can.”
Regardless of the why, Collier noted she always gets into good running shape in short order. Of course, it’s hard to get out of shape when you never relent. This current run is on the heels of Collier being one of the primary contributors on the U.S.’s Olympic gold-medal winning team in August.
She should be exhausted by now. And yet, Collier shows no signs of slowing down. She has no plans to stop, at least not until a trophy is secure in her arms late Sunday evening.
WNBA Finals
Best of 5
LYNX 2, Liberty 2
Game 1: LYNX 95, Liberty 93, OT
Game 2: Liberty 80, LYNX 66
Game 3: Liberty 80, LYNX 77
GAme 4: LYNX 82, Liberty 80
Sunday: LYNX at Liberty, 7 p.m.
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