Late in the third quarter of a 111-58 win over the Las Vegas Aces, Minnesota Lynx star and WNBA MVP frontrunner Napheesa Collier left the game with a right ankle injury.
Collier rolled her ankle while running into Lynx forward Alanna Smith, who, like Collier, was eying an offensive rebound. Collier's right foot collided with the back of Smith's left foot.
After getting twisted up, Collier hit the deck.
The Lynx took a timeout, and Aces star and three-time league MVP A'ja Wilson left the Vegas bench to help Collier stand up. Minnesota forward Jessica Sheppard gave the five-time All-Star forward a hand, too.
But after Collier painfully got to her feet with their assistance, the Lynx's head athletic trainer told her to sit back down. Collier was ultimately able to walk gingerly off the court and into the locker room under her own power, albeit with an arm around the shoulder of the trainer.
At the time, the Lynx were up 92-49 on the Aces, who had their reserves in the game from about midway through the third quarter on. Minnesota wound up winning by 53 points, recording the largest road win in WNBA history. The Lynx topped a previous-record-holding, 45-point road win registered by the Houston Comets in 1998, which was only the league's second year of competition.
Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve was asked postgame if she has second thoughts about Collier still being in the game at the time of her injury, given Minnesota's massive lead.
"No, I don't think about those things," Reeve said. "It's the third quarter of a game on someone else's floor. I don't think the game was over. I don't think like that. She had a sub there, and she wasn't going to play in the fourth quarter. Sometimes these things happen. And I get it. People are going to rail on me. That's part of sitting in the seat that I'm sitting in. But we did what we think was right, and sometimes these things happen — unfortunate, and hopefully she'll be OK."
Collier scored just four points during a 67-point Lynx first half that featured lights out shooting from her teammates, including from five-time All-Star guard Kayla McBride, who tied a WNBA record with 8 made 3s in one half.
Collier joined the scoring party in the third quarter when she recorded 14 points, giving her 18 on the day before she went down.
A 2025 All-Star captain, Collier entered the weekend averaging a league-high 23.8 points per game. Her Lynx are a league-best 24-5.
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