Lynx fall 78-73 to Sun, and lose Napheesa Collier to foot injury

With just over 2½ minutes left in the third quarter of the Lynx’s game with Connecticut at Target Center on Thursday, in front of the Lynx bench, star Napheesa Collier made a cut.

She came up limping, without any apparent contact. But she left the game with what the team called a left foot injury and did not return.

As of Thursday night it was uncertain how extensive an injury Collier — set to play in her second Olympics this summer, leading the Lynx in every way — had sustained.

But that might have been the most difficult thing to take from Minnesota’s 78-73 loss to the Sun. It was the first time the Lynx (14-6) had lost consecutive games this season. Having it happen with your best player on the bench just made things worse.

“I mean, she’s an MVP-candidate player,” said Kayla McBride, who hit three of six threes and scored 13 points with eight rebounds and four assists. “We want her on the court with us, her dominance and presence at both ends. We needed her at that moment.”

When Collier left the game the Lynx trailed 55-53, having already given up a 10-point lead from earlier in the third quarter. And if it didn’t hurt the Lynx right away, it did eventually. After Diamond Miller’s three-point play with 7:35 left in the game tied the score at 64, the Sun (16-4) went on a 10-0 run to go up 74-64 on Tiffany Mitchell’s driving layup with just under three minutes left.

It was the decisive run in a game full of them.

To Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, with or without Collier, the Lynx didn’t do enough to win.

“You can’t respond to a team’s physicality by calling for fouls,” Reeve said. “We have to respond with aggressive play. If the ball is in your hands, don’t go back on your heels. All the basic stuff. We just have to play a little tougher, physically. There were times we did that, there were times we didn’t do it enough.”

Like, for example, the first quarter, when Connecticut came out and built a 20-9 lead led by DeWanna Bonner, who scored 11 of her 24 points in the first seven minutes.

For much of the rest of the game the teams traded runs. The Lynx took the lead and Connecticut answered back. Down 34-27 with just over four minutes left in the first half, the Lynx went on a 24-6 run over the next six minutes to take a 48-38 lead early in the third, only to have Connecticut score the next 10.

Down 64-58 entering the fourth quarter, the Lynx tied the score at 64 on Miller’s three-point play.

And then Alyssa Thomas took over. Over the final 7½ minutes of the game Thomas — who finished with a 13-point, 14-assist, 10-rebound triple double — didn’t score. But she assisted on four of five Connecticut field goals and grabbed five rebounds.

“Through the years we’ve tried a lot of things,” Reeve said about Thomas. “After every game we say, ‘It didn’t work.’ She’s just that good. She’s smart enough to know where the ball should go.”

BOXSCORE: Connecticut 78, Lynx 73

The Lynx had four of five starters in double figures: Alanna Smith (14), McBride (13), Courtney Williams (12) and Bridget Carleton (12). They shot 45.2%. But, at the most basic level, they just couldn’t match Connecticut’s intensity level for the full 40 minutes.

Now the Lynx might be without Collier for at least a while. And, perhaps, backup guard Olivia Époupa, who left the game in the first half because of a thigh injury.

“Phee knows we have her back,” McBride said. “No matter what the circumstances are. We want her to be healthy. She’s our leader. But if you are without her? All season long we’ve talked about this being a collective effort. Everybody has to do a little more at both ends.”