Minnesota
Napheesa Collier’s stellar play has led the Minnesota Lynx to the top of the WNBA
Napheesa Collier and the Minnesota Lynx have been nearly unbeatable since the Olympic break.
The Lynx star, who helped the United States win its eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal, has been averaging 20.7 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists and the team has won 12 of 13 since the Paris Games to surge into second place in the standings.
She’s also been an anchor on the defensive end as the Lynx have only given up an average of 78 points in those games. In the last four contests, including a huge win over the New York Liberty on Sunday, Minnesota hasn’t allowed a team to reach 80 points.
“Each year she knows that if she plays like an MVP that our team has a chance to be highly successful,” Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said. “That’s what we’ve seen this year. Both sides, her impact defensively each night there are different ways you can use her. She’s defensive player of the year and MVP, that’s why were are sitting where we are.”
In any other year where A’ja Wilson wasn’t putting up historic numbers, Collier would be a front runner for the league’s top award. Unfortunately for the Lynx star, Wilson has been truly amazing, becoming the first player in WNBA history to score more than 1,000 points in a season and averaging 27.0 points — the highest in league history.
That doesn’t take away from what Collier and the Lynx have done. Coming into the season, Minnesota wasn’t talked about much as one of the elite teams in the league like Las Vegas, New York or Seattle. The Lynx have broken through, winning the Commissioner’s Cup earlier in the year and now finishing as one of the top three teams in the regular season.
“We have a strong, strong feel for who we are and if I could describe our team, I would say everyone is comfortable in their own skin and we all accept each other for who we are and that just gives us all confidence,” Reeve said.
Minnesota took over the top spot in the AP WNBA poll from New York, marking the first time this season the Lynx have been No. 1 and ending the Liberty’s 10-week run. They fell to No. 2. Las Vegas moved up to third with Connecticut and Indiana next. Seattle, Phoenix and Chicago followed the Fever. Washington and Atlanta were eighth and ninth while Dallas and Los Angeles rounded out the poll.
Caitlin Clark continued her assault on the WNBA record books. She broke the rookie single-season scoring record, taking down Seimone Augustus’ mark of 744 points set in 2006. The Indiana Fever rookie had a season-best 35 points in the win over Dallas to do it. Two days earlier, Clark broke the WNBA mark for assists in a single season, passing Alyssa Thomas’ record set last year when she had 316. Clark now has 329 with one game to play in Washington on Thursday.
Sparks rookie Rickea Jackson had another solid week, averaging 20 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists as Los Angeles lost all three of its games. On the season, the former Tennessee star is averaging 13.4 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.5 assists.
Wilson had another impressive set of games to earn AP Player of the Week honors as the Aces star averaged 23.7 points, 12.7 rebounds and 2.3 blocks to help Las Vegas go 3-0 and stay in the hunt for the No. 3 seed. Indiana’s Kelsey Mitchell also received votes.
The WNBA playoffs begin Sunday with all four opening round series playing their Game 1s.
The 26-year-old defenseman finished with three shots in 26:55 of ice time in his first game since being traded to Minnesota by the Vancouver Canucks on Friday for defenseman Zeev Buium, forwards Marco Rossi and Liam Ohgren, and a first-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.
“It’s been a whirlwind for sure,” Hughes said. “I’m just looking forward to kind of getting my feet on the ground and get with the team here and get in a day-to-day lifestyle here. But definitely the last 48 hours have been a lot, but I was excited to go play the game.”
Kirill Kaprizov had two goals and an assist, Hartman had a goal and two assists, and Matt Boldy had a goal and an assist for the Wild (19-9-5), who extended their winning streak to four games and home point streak to 12 games (10-0-2). Filip Gustavsson made 29 saves.
“The crowd was electric I think just from the … I would say warmups to the introduction and then throughout the game,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “So, it was great to see the building like that and the guys perform the way that they did. So, it was a great combo.”
Alex Steeves and Andrew Peeke scored, and Swayman made 25 saves for the Bruins (19-14-0), who had won four straight.
“They’re a very good hockey team,” Boston coach Marco Sturm said. “They’re built pretty big, they play the right way, they play pretty hard, and they go to the net really hard, too. So, that’s something I mentioned, even between periods. That’s something we have to learn. And even if teams like that, we have to learn from that, and that shows we’re not there yet, and that’s a good thing, I think.
“Do we like the end results? No, but we had our chances in the first, even in the second period, and those are the chances that you have to use, otherwise it’s going to get hard against a team like that.”
Jared Spurgeon put Minnesota ahead 1-0 at 10:11 of the first period with a wrist shot through traffic as Swayman was screened by Marcus Johansson on a power play.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Temperatures dropped into the negative Saturday, with the coldest temperatures in the morning.
How cold it got in Minnesota Saturday
By the numbers:
Here is how cold the temperatures got in Minnesota:
- Hinckley: -20 degrees
- Bemidji: -20 degrees
- Ely: -18 degrees
- Brainerd: -18 degrees
- Detroit Lakes: -18 degrees
- Hibbing: -17 degrees
- International Falls: -17 degrees
- Duluth: -16 degrees
- Alexandria: -12 degrees
- St. Cloud: -12 degrees
- Cambridge: -11 degrees
- Grand Marais: -10 degrees
- Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport: -6 degrees
- Red Wing: -6 degrees
- Morris: -6 degrees
- Hutchinson: -5 degrees
- Rochester: -5 degrees
- Mankato: -3 degrees
- Windom: 0 degrees
- Marshall: 0 degrees
Here are the lowest wind chills across Minnesota from Saturday:
- Bemidji: -37 degrees
- Ely: -35 degrees
- Duluth: -34 degrees
- Brainerd: -32 degrees
- Detroit Lakes: -32 degrees
- Hibbing: -31 degrees
- Alexandria: -29 degrees
- Hinckley: -27 degrees
- Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport: -24 degrees
- St. Cloud: -24 degrees
- Willmar: -22 degrees
- Cambridge-21 degrees
- Grand Marais: -21 degrees
- Hutchinson: -21 deegres
- Morris: -20 degrees
- Faribault: -18 degrees
- Mankato: -18 degrees
- Marshall: -17 degrees
- Red Wing: -16 degrees
- Owatonna: -16 degrees
- Windom-12 degrees
Cold continues Sunday
What’s next:
The Twin Cities are under a cold weather advisory that is expected to last through Sunday morning, so residents should prepare for frigid conditions if they have plans to be outdoors.
Sunday will be slightly less frigid with temperatures climbing above zero. However, it will still feel like 10 below zero in the afternoon.
Milder and warmer temperatures are expected to return for the work week.
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