For most of Friday night, the Minnesota Lynx looked like the team that had tied a WNBA record with 34 regular-season wins and entered the playoffs as the top seed. They were physical, disciplined, and carried a four-point lead into the fourth quarter of Game 3 against the Phoenix Mercury.
Then, in a matter of minutes, everything unraveled.
Star forward Napheesa Collier limped off the floor in tears with an apparent ankle injury. Head coach Cheryl Reeve was ejected after a furious outburst at officials. And the Lynx, who once seemed poised to take control of the semifinals, instead saw their season placed on the brink in an 84-76 defeat.
Minnesota now trails 2-1 in the best-of-five series, with Game 4 set for Sunday in Phoenix.
A Crushing Moment
The defining play came with 21.8 seconds remaining. Collier, the 2025 MVP runner-up, took an inbounds pass at the top of the key when Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas swiped the ball away. Minnesota star Collier collapsed awkwardly as Thomas sprinted the other way for a layup that stretched Phoenix’s lead to six.
Collier slapped the court in frustration before being helped to the locker room, her face streaked with tears. Reeve, livid at the lack of a foul call, charged the officials and had to be restrained by players and assistants. She was ejected after receiving her second technical foul.
“One of the best players in the league shot zero free throws. Zero,” Reeve said afterward. “She had five fouls. Got her shoulder pulled out and finished the game with her leg being taken out, and probably has a fracture. … The officiating crew we had tonight, for the leadership to deem those three people semifinals playoff worthy is f—g malpractice. I can take an L with the best of them. I don’t think we should have to play through more than what they did. They’re f—g awful.”
There was no official update on Collier’s status late Friday, but the sight of Minnesota’s leader being helped off the floor underscored the magnitude of the moment.
Fourth-Quarter Breakdown
Up 67-63 after three quarters, Minnesota looked ready to withstand Phoenix’s push. Natisha Hiedeman had delivered a spark with 19 points off the bench, including eight in the final five minutes of the third, while Courtney Williams chipped in 14.
But the Lynx’s offense sputtered in the final 10 minutes. They managed only nine points in the fourth quarter, went without a field goal in the last three minutes, and failed to counter Phoenix’s pressure defense.
“We got to do a better job executing down the stretch in the fourth so we don’t put ourselves in that situation,” Hiedeman said. “You look at the fourth, it’s nine to 21. That’s not winning basketball on our end.”
“We not out of it.”
— Ahmad Hicks (@AhmadHicksTV) September 27, 2025
Despite all the chaos and drama surrounding the #Lynx and their head coach, they still have a chance to bring this series back to Minnesota…
Here’s what Courtney Williams had to say following the game about moving on. @FOX9 @Fox9Sports #Lynx pic.twitter.com/tuwuC9aEgd
Williams acknowledged the intensity of playoff basketball.
“It’s playoff basketball, right? I think that comes with it. Got to just play ball, man,” she said. Later, she added: “We still here. We still a great team…You can’t get too high, can’t get too low. We still got a game we got to win.”
Collier, who had 13 points in the first half, attempted only one shot in the fourth and was held scoreless. Her absence loomed large as the Lynx’s half-court sets faltered.
Phoenix Pounces
While Minnesota unraveled, Phoenix surged behind its Big Three. Satou Sabally scored 23 points, including 15 in the fourth quarter, while Thomas and Kahleah Copper each added 21.
“They only scored nine points and that’s really due to our good defense,” Sabally said. “We closed them out, we knew what they were running, so we were really well prepared and just trusting each other. DB had some great rebounds, Car came in flying—it was just really amazing to see how we all worked together.”
Copper, who had 17 points by halftime, regrouped after a third-quarter technical foul.
“Right after that, we came to the timeout and just spoke up about just staying composed and understanding the moment,” she said. “We don’t want anything to affect the game and change the momentum. So it’s cool.”
I asked Satou Sabally about the Mercury’s defense on the backcourt of Courtney Williams/Kayla McBride tonight. #WNBA pic.twitter.com/4tXSgPIIaF
— Aya Abdeen (@ayabdeen) September 27, 2025
Thomas emphasized composure as the deciding factor. “When we’re a composed team, we’re locked in, we’re focused, and we do the little things,” she said. “We just got to control what we can control and that’s ourselves.”
Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts praised his team’s toughness and balance.
“This is a team that believes in each other,” he said. “We’ve been overlooked a little bit all year. But the one thing that we are is—we’re tough and we’ll fight and compete, and we did that in the fourth and made it hard for them on every possession.”
Season on the Brink
The collapse was especially jarring given the Lynx’s dominance during the regular season, when they tied the league record for most wins. This was supposed to be the year they avenged last season’s Finals heartbreak. Instead, Minnesota heads into Game 4 fighting for survival.
Whether Collier can return will be the defining storyline. Without her, the Lynx would lose their anchor on both ends of the floor and one of the league’s most versatile stars.
For a franchise built on composure and consistency, Friday night marked the rarest of sights: a team losing control of both the game and its emotions. If the Lynx cannot regroup, their season may be remembered not for their record-setting run, but for the night it all came apart.
