Napheesa Collier and Lynx win Game 3 over Sun in WNBA playoffs

UNCASVILLE, Conn. – Despite losing in Game 1 of the WNBA semifinals, Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said she is optimistic about her team's chances of winning the series. His best player, Napheesa Collier, was not efficient offensively and the Connecticut Sun shot over 40% from 3.

Neither is likely to happen again over the course of the series.

“There was definitely a level of confidence after Game 1,” Reeve said. “This group will bounce back. They always do.”

Five days later, the Lynx are now up 2-1 after winning 90-81 at the Sun's home stadium on Friday night. Game 4 takes place here at Mohegan Sun Arena on Sunday.

Collier finished the game with 26 points and 11 rebounds, shooting 11 of 19 from the field. She became the first player in Lynx history to have multiple 25-point, 10-rebound performances in the playoffs.

After a record-setting series against the Phoenix Mercury in which they scored 80 points in two games, the Sun were able to limit Collier's performance in Games 1 and 2 of the semifinals. She scored just 28 points total in the two games, including nine points on 3-for-14 shooting in Game 2.

But bringing Collier into action early was clearly part of the Lynx's game plan for Friday.

“There hasn't been anyone more frustrated than Phee over the last few games,” Reeve said.

Collier got on the board on the Lynx's third possession and hit a turnaround jumper over Alyssa Thomas a few possessions later. She had eight points in the first six minutes after a pump-fake layup and a turnaround jumper.

Collier shot 4 of 14 with Thomas as her primary defender in Games 1 and 2; She went 5-on-5 against Thomas in the first half on Friday. It set the tone for the Lynx offense.

“I just take my time and know that I’m putting in a lot of work. These are shots I normally do,” she said. “Everyone has a free evening. I tried to contribute in other ways to help the team. And I know they will fall. These are shots I take 1,000 times… It's the law of averages. Sometimes you have one. “But I knew I had to come in – it’s the playoffs, you have to play with an aggressive attitude, not remembering what happened in the game before but staying in the present moment.”

The Sun had no answer for the Lynx's pick-and-roll offense, which featured Collier and Courtney Williams. They tried to cover aggressively, they tried to catch the ball and take it out of Williams' hands, they tried to switch – and none of it worked. According to ESPN Research, Minnesota went 5-for-5 from the field in the first half as the Suns tried to attack Williams with two defenders.

When momentum began to swing toward Connecticut or the Lynx desperately needed a basket, they simply reverted to their ball-screen offense.

After DeWanna Bonner cut the Lynx's lead to three with a deep 3 early in the second quarter, Collier and Williams got back into the game and immediately made ball checks on consecutive possessions. The first resulted in a left-handed layup from Collier and the second ended with Collier setting up Kayla McBride in the corner for a 3-pointer while being fouled, cutting the lead to nine points.

After the Sun got back to within nine points in the fourth quarter, Williams again caught Collier rolling to the basket to extend the lead. With less than three minutes left, Collier came up and set up Williams, then the Sun made a substitution and ended up with a smaller defender on Collier – who received the ball upfield and reduced the deficit to 10 points.

“They’re making adjustments, and I think we’re prepared for their adjustments,” Williams said. “Of course we know they will go back to the drawing board and make further adjustments. And that's what we're going to do. I'm trapped, I can leave it alone. They're tough on hedging, they're drowning, but we know how to trust each other and adapt when they throw other things at us.

Connecticut, which had the league's best defense in the regular season – measured in defensive efficiency and points per game – was picked apart in a way that very few teams had been picked apart in the regular season. Minnesota shot better than 59% in the first half; According to ESPN Research, this was the second-best shooting performance by a team against the Sun in the first half this season.

Opponents shot just 43.1% against the Sun in the regular season, but Minnesota shot over 57% in the game. It was also only the second time this season that a team scored 90 points in the regular season against the Sun.

“They're a good team, they spread the court, they're really balanced, but I felt like it was more on us,” Sun coach Stephanie White said. “I felt like we were soft no matter what we did. I felt like we kind of let them go wherever they wanted. There must easily be a disruptive mentality.

Meanwhile, Suns leading scorer Marina Mabrey struggled to find a rhythm. After averaging 17.5 points in two games in the series, she shot 6 of 20 (1 of 11 from 3) as the Lynx made a point of limiting her catching space. Bridget Carleton and McBride rarely gave Mabrey a chance, and when she did, her chances didn't fall. She missed all six of her open 3-point attempts after going 8 of 12 clean in the first two games.

“I thought we were OK in Mabrey,” Reeve said. “She is a good scorer. I thought she had some shots that she just didn't make. I'm not trying to give her the same chances in our next game… I didn't think it was necessarily anything we did.”

A promising sign for the Sun was the play of Brionna Jones, who was completely uninvolved in the first two games of the series and had to sit out the entire fourth quarter of Game 2. She had nine points in the first half Friday and then scored another four early in the third quarter while also contributing four assists in the first 25 minutes. Jones finished the regular season with 17 or more points in seven of the team's final nine games, but averaged just 5.0 points in four playoff games. Friday's performance appeared to be a return to her September form.

“I think it was just my mentality going into that game. I know I haven’t stood out offensively in the last two games,” Jones said. “My teammates found me and gave me a simple look.”

Unfortunately for the Sun, they picked up their fourth foul on an illegal screen with 4:22 left in the third quarter after they had turned the momentum of the game. Minnesota responded with an 11-5 run to give itself some breathing room in the final period.

Bonner also had 16 points for the Sun, moving past Candace Parker (1,149) into second place on the WNBA's career playoff scoring list. Bonner now has 1,159 points and is only behind Diana Taurasi (1,455).

With the win, Minnesota moved one step closer to returning to the WNBA Finals, a stage the Lynx reached in six of seven seasons from 2011 to 2017, resulting in four championships. But they haven't been to the final since their last title in 2017.

After being projected as a borderline playoff team in preseason, they are now just 40 minutes away from a chance at the championship.

“They constantly underestimate us and we just keep doing what we’re doing,” Collier said. “We come in and punch teams in the face. We've proven who we are all season long and we have so much confidence in ourselves. We know what we're capable of and that's what we're trying to show everyone tonight.”