WNBA leading scorer Napheesa Collier returned to action Friday night after sitting out two games because of a back injury and led the first-place Minnesota Lynx to a 96-92 overtime victory over the Atlanta Dream in College Park, Georgia.
Collier had sat out a victory win over the Los Angeles Sparks on Saturday and a loss to the Washington Mystics on Tuesday. She said she returned for Friday's game ready to go for as long as needed for Minnesota (13-2).
Collier ended up playing 40 of the 45 minutes, finishing with 26 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 blocks. She was 8 of 18 from the field and 8 of 8 from the foul line. The game took a little longer than usual because of the overtime period and an eight-minute delay in the second quarter after the lights flickered at Gateway Center Arena because of a thunderstorm.
"If this was the playoffs, I would have been back before," Collier said of staying out two games. "But I wanted to make sure I was coming back not having any load management, not having a minutes restriction, 100% ready to go."
Collier, the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year last season and runner-up to A'ja Wilson for MVP, is averaging 24.5 points this season. In Minnesota's game against the Las Vegas Aces on June 17, she was forced to leave in the third quarter because of a back issue.
Minnesota still won that game to clinch a spot in the Commissioner's Cup championship game. That will be played Tuesday in Minneapolis against the Indiana Fever. It's part of a stretch of five games in eight days for the Lynx, starting Sunday at home against the Connecticut Sun.
Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve complimented Collier's ability to return to action playing so well, especially against a team with as much inside presence as the Dream.
"It's not necessarily an easy game to come back into, with the bigs that they have," Reeve said. "Phee has always been a player who fills up the box score. She was obviously special for us."