How the Lynx fare when Napheesa Collier struggles to score is difficult to predict.
What happens when she's not on the floor isn't.
Once Collier fell into early foul trouble Thursday, the Indiana Fever took advantage and didn't look back. Even as her teammates attempted to fill in the gaps, Collier's rough night resulted in a 91-73 Fever victory at Gainbridge Fieldhouse that dropped the Lynx to 14-16.
The three-time All-Star forward missed her first seven shot attempts and failed to record her first points until the 5:34 mark in the third quarter, after she scored a combined 50 points in the Lynx's two previous meetings with Indiana. And Collier had eight points on 3-of-12 shooting, with five rebounds, two assists and two turnovers by game's end.
Still, the Fever only led by a modest six points when she was subbed out with three fouls. Just possessions later, the Lynx even cut their deficit to as few as two points.
But the absence of their top rebounder proved too much to overcome.
Indiana finished the half on a 10-2 run, which was kickstarted by a stretch of eight unanswered points — three of which were tallied to end a possession that included four offensive rebounds. NaLyssa Smith, a strong 6-4 forward, nabbed two of them. And Kelsey Mitchell downed the long-range jumper, moments removed from an earlier miss.
It then mattered less that Rachel Banham, who finished with 18 points, hit a few threes to end the half with 11 points off the bench, or that Jessica Shepard made all of her field goals and five free throws for 11 points of her own. Shepard finished with 13 points.
At that point, the Fever's eight offensive rebounds headlined the half.
"The biggest thing is going to obviously always be defend and rebound," Banham said before tip-off. "We got to keep them off the offensive glass. I felt that hurt us last [Fever] game: I just vividly remember that."
Star rookie center Aliyah Boston crashed the boards as much as anyone, and she pulled in 13 rebounds — five offensive — to go along with her ultra-efficient 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting.
Although Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said 6-5 backup center Dorka Juhász would not face a specific minutes restriction in her return from a right hamstring injury, she had minimal impact with four rebounds and one assist in only 13 minutes of action.
She last played less than 20 minutes on June 20, when a steal was her only recorded statistic across eight minutes of playing time.
The Star Tribune did not send the writer of this article to the game. This was written using a broadcast, interviews and other material.
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