One UConn legend is preparing to say goodbye, while another is just getting started.
Diana Taurasi hasn’t spoken about her possible retirement after 20 seasons in the WNBA, but if Wednesday was her final game, it came at the hands of another UConn player, one whose legacy is just beginning.
Napheesa Collier led the No. 2-ranked Lynx past the No. 7-ranked Mercury with a 42-point performance in a 101-88 victory in their Game 2 first-round series. A day earlier, Collier talked about playing with and against Taurasi.
“It feels like it’s her retirement tour,” Collier said. “I don’t know. She’s been pretty quiet about it. But obviously, she’s a UConn great, a GOAT of the league.”
“I feel fortunate to have been able to play with her on Team USA and against her, and I hope we can end her career on Wednesday.”
With that last sentence, a sly smile spread across Collier’s face. He was joking… sort of.
Collier wanted to win Game 2 at all costs rather than go to Phoenix for a decisive Game 3, and the forward did everything in its power to make that happen. In the sweep, Collier totaled 80 points, the most by any player in a two-game playoff stretch. Her 42 points also tied a postseason record for most points in a game.
And yet, when Collier looked at the scoreboard after the game, he had only one thought.
“I should have made my free throws,” he said, with that same mischievous smile.
Collier made 12 of 14 free throws. One more shot would have broken the record for scoring in a single game. But coach Cheryl Reeve didn’t let her star player get away from acknowledging the greatness of her performance in the series.
“She tied the single-game record, but she has the two-game record,” Reeve said. “So she’s first in that.”
Collier has been Minnesota’s catalyst this season, averaging 20.4 points per game and finishing second in MVP voting. When the Lynx need a basket, Collier is the one to get it. That was the case in Game 1, when Minnesota faced a resilient Mercury team that went from trailing by 23 points in the first half to leading by one in the fourth quarter. Collier scored 38 points in that win, something Reeve addressed in the locker room before Game 2.
“I told the team before the game, ‘Look, she’s not going to score 38 points tonight.’ So she came out and said, ‘Coach, I was right.’ She scored 42 points,” Reeve said with a laugh. “So it was an unbelievable, unbelievable run.”
Collier scored in a variety of ways in Wednesday’s win. He got to the rim, shot from midrange and hit 3-pointers. Collier shot 70 percent from the field in Game 2 and 57.9 percent in Game 1.
“Phee has the ability to know what she’s going to get in each game and how she’s going to get it,” Reeve said. “If you let her be in the paint, she’ll find herself in the paint. … She knows how to play on the move, be on the perimeter and shoot. She finds different ways to affect the game.”
With the win over Phoenix, the No. 2 Lynx advance to a semifinal matchup against No. 3 Connecticut. The two teams have met three times this season. Connecticut won the first, 83-81 in overtime, and the second 78-73, but Minnesota emerged victorious in their most recent meeting, a 78-76 victory on Sept. 17.
Collier led the Lynx in scoring in two of the games, with 31 points in the first meeting and 25 in the second.
