Phee ‘is in focus’ — Maya Moore says Minnesota’s current superstar is hitting her prime

It was a weekend at Target Center that welcomed and honored Moore, Seimone Augustus, Rebekkah Brunson, Sylvia Fowles and Lindsay Whalen. It was a weekend that featured opponents like the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces, the quartet of gold medalists in Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum, A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young; and the Indiana Fever, featuring Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston. Considering the star power in the building, and that the Lynx are playing some of the best basketball in the league right now, it’s not surprising that well over 30,000 people passed through Target Center’s gates, but the brightest star in the sky for all those eyes to see across two electric nights in Minneapolis was undoubtedly Napheesa Collier.

“She is on fire. … That’s what it says on the scoreboard in the arena, ‘Phee’s on fire,’” Moore said to reporters prior to Saturday night’s game against the Indiana Fever. “That is such an accurate way, because you can tell she’s got that fire and bounce in her step. She’s in her groove and her element. She can do so many things well and she doesn’t care who gets the credit.”

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Saturday night’s occasion may have been marked to celebrate Moore, but the living legend was plenty willing to share the spotlight with her fellow UConn alumnus and product of Jefferson City, Missouri. 

“She’s so in focus,” Moore added. “I can tell that she’s hitting her prime, and the sky’s the limit for her. I still can’t wrap my mind around our paths and how similar they are. Meeting her somewhere around eighth grade, ninth grade, going to UConn and getting drafted by the Lynx, it’s just really cool. I think the connection we have because of that, we’ll always remember.” 

Any one of the 30,000+ people who walked through Target Center this weekend are sure to remember the on-court performances Collier treated them to. The two-time gold medalist has been spectacular since the league returned to action after the Olympic hiatus. Friday night’s game in particular impressed as the Lynx beat the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces for the second time in three days in a game where Collier outrebounded the opponent by herself, grabbing a career-high 18, while her defensive assignment called for her to guard Wilson from start to finish. 

“I think it was just so fun,” Collier said after the game. “The energy that we came in (with), so focused from the beginning of the game, and we didn’t even start off the way we wanted to. … The level of focus that I thought we came back with was really fun. When we’re moving like that, it’s just the most fun basketball that I’ve played. It’s been amazing to be part of this and I feel like we’re hitting our peak at the right time.”

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No matter how historic the achievement, Collier is bound to be modest in talking about it. As a player, she’s been as steady and unselfish as they come through her career. What’s transpiring now is a player whose stardom is becoming fully realized while maintaining the unselfish qualities she’s always had, combined with the willingness to, in her coach’s words, ‘Go be great.’

“It’s a double-edged sword with Phee, she’s such an unselfish player and always just wants to make the right plays.” Lynx head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve said before the game on Saturday. “We had to sit down and have a conversation with her, and she doesn’t want to play selfishly. And I told her that, ‘Great players, you have this space where you have to take chances.’ Actually just had [that conversation] again recently. A reminder, we were talking about Maya Moore, and you have to let great players go be great. There’s a fine line. Phee’s never going to over-do it, she’s not going to take a bunch of bad shots, but you have to take chances when you’re a great player and you get the space to do that.”

Collier rarely takes a bad shot, and during this last stretch it’s hard to say she’s taken a single one. Per Across the Timeline, over her last four games she became the first player ever in WNBA history to score 110+ points while shooting over 70% from the field over a four-game stretch. 

Considering numbers like that, it wasn’t hard to imagine who might receive Player of the Week honors.

“When your best player is willing to play both ends of the floor to the level that Phee plays at, whether she’s being guarded by a team’s best or whether she’s guarding the best,” Reeve said after the game against the Aces. “To be a highly successful team, your best player has to be the one that you can count on in those moments.” 

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There was no rest to be had for Collier and the Lynx after the impressive 87-74 win against Las Vegas on Friday night. Roughly 18 hours later, the Lynx tipped off against an Indiana team that has been playing great and also handed the Lynx one of their most disappointing losses of the season the last time the two teams met. 

Collier responded by leading the Lynx to a 90-80 win while pouring in a season-high-tying 31 points. A fitting way to go into the ensuing ceremony that honored another sensational basketball player from Jefferson City. 

“I think it just happened that way,” Collier said after the game. “I didn’t go out and was like, ‘I need to show Maya I love her and I’m doing this for her.’ Just doing whatever needs to be done to win the game, that’s my mindset in every game and it just happened tonight. I’ve said this multiple times, but any one of us could have 30 every night. That’s the beauty of our team. How to spread out our challenges, it’s really fun to be able to do that. 

“Again, just a special night with Maya and her retirement. She’s such an icon to the game of basketball and to me as well. Just thanks (to) Maya for everything that she’s done for the game and for social justice as well.” 

The win against the Fever marked Minnesota’s 22nd of the season and clinched its place in the 2024 WNBA Playoffs. Just a half-game behind Connecticut in second place, and three-and-a-half games behind New York in first in the league standings, the Lynx are in position to lock in home court advantage in the coming games. 

While No. 23 from Jefferson City has taken her rightful place in the rafters, their No. 24 from Jefferson City is still on the floor and if she keeps playing like this, it’s not difficult to imagine another banner going up sooner rather than later.

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