The league-leading Minnesota Lynx have MVP candidate Napheesa Collier back in the fold as they host the struggling Connecticut Sun on Sunday in Minneapolis.
Minnesota (13-2) rebounded from a rare defeat with a 96-92 overtime win over Atlanta on Friday. The Sun (2-14) fell 97-81 at Seattle on Friday to see their losing streak reach eight games in their third consecutive contest without Marina Mabrey (knee).
After missing two games with a back injury, Collier scored 26 points, with seven rebounds and six assists in 40 minutes Friday, on her way to her ninth game of 20-plus points. She is scoring a league-best 24.5 points per game.
“If this was the playoffs, I would have been back before,” Collier said. “But I wanted to make sure I was coming back, not having any load management, not having any minute restrictions, 100 percent ready to go.”
Minnesota is scoring 84.2 points per game with a balanced attack that has Kayla McBride putting up 15.5 points per contest while Courtney Williams averages 13.0 points with 5.9 assists.
The Sun have a 1-8 road record, which includes a 76-70 loss at Minnesota on May 23. The Lynx are 7-0 at home.
Mabrey scored 22 points with eight rebounds and six assists in the last meeting against Minnesota, and her absence won’t make it easy for the Sun to pull out an upset win in the finale of a four-game road swing.
Mabrey has averaged 15.2 points, while Tina Charles is the leading scorer for Connecticut with 15.6 points.
The Sun are putting up a league-worst 71.6 points per game and have lost their last three by an average of 22 points.
But there have been encouraging signs, like rookie Aneesah Morrow scoring in double figures in four of her last five games, including 20 against the Storm. Bria Hartley added 19 against Seattle.
“We still need to come together and be better collectively, so that we are all on the same page,” Hartley said. “I think you see moments where one player is playing really well, and another player is on another night. We just need to all play well in the same game. If we get that to happen, I think we will be alright.”
–Field Level Media
