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Napheesa Collier and the Minnesota Lynx faced off in a high-profile clash against A'ja Wilson's Las Vegas Aces on Wednesday. It was the third game back after the 2024 Paris Olympics break, with the team from the Twin Cities looking to reach their 20th win of the season.
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Collier came into the game as one of two players averaging 20+ points and 10+ rebounds a game (the other being Wilson) and wasted little time in making herself useful on both ends of the floor.
Her first-half performance was studded with eye-catching plays, most notably a pick-and-pop long two with the shot clock expiring in the first quarter.
With the Lynx leading 54-46 she ended the first half with 14 points and three rebounds in 16 minutes of action, going 5-for-7 from the field.
Minnesota built on their lead in the second half, pulling away from the defending champions who could not cut down the lead to less than nine points at any stage.
Collier came up trumps in the matchup against the league MVP A'ja Wilson who finished with 15 points and nine rebounds.
Napheesa Collier has her sights set on WNBA title
The Lynx star has had a very successful year, winning the Euroleague title with Fenerbahce in April and Olympic gold in Paris with Team USA. Despite this, she maintained that bringing a WNBA title to Minnesota remains her focus:
"Winning the WNBA championship is a goal that I've had for forever, and EuroLeague is kind of a new goal. I feel so emotionally tied to a WNBA championship that the feeling that I got winning EuroLeague would just be times by a thousand. So it definitely makes me want to recreate that even more," Collier said.
Her game-winning performance improved the title-hopeful Lynx to a 20-8 overall record so far this season, enough to sit on top of the Western Conference standings. The two teams will square off again on Friday when the Aces travel to Minnesota.
