Napheesa Collier scores 31 for Lynx, besting Caitlin Clark’s 23 in 90–80 win over Fever

With the Minnesota Lynx retiring Maya Moore‘s jersey on Saturday night, the home team came out strong and appeared on its way to a blowout win over the Indiana Fever. The Lynx roared out to a big early lead in the first quarter on their way to a 90–80 victory.

Minnesota clinched a playoff spot with the win.

However, a Fever team that had won seven of its past nine games and is now playing for a WNBA playoff spot of its own, fought back and essentially flipped the first-quarter score in the second, outscoring Minnesota 28–16 to make it a one-point game at halftime. Indiana did close to a 74–71 deficit in the fourth quarter, but the Lynx went on a 12–0 run from there to close the game out.

Napheesa Collier scored a season-high 31 points with five rebounds for Minnesota, her third straight game with 23 or more points. Kayla McBride followed with 19 points and four assists, while Bridget Carleton tallied 16 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals.

The Fever were led by Caitlin Clark‘s 23 points, along with five rebounds and eight assists. Unfortunately, she also had seven turnovers, adding to her league-leading total of 162 (averaging 5.8 per game). However, Clark still leads the NBA in assists, averaging 8.3 per game. Kelsey Mitchell added 21, while Aliyah Boston grabbed 15 rebounds to go with her 10 points.

Clark reached 500 total points and 200 assists in 29 games played, the fastest to reach those numbers during a season in WNBA history and the first rookie to do so.

The Lynx improved their record to 23–8, the third-best mark in the WNBA, while joining the New York Liberty and Connecticut Sun in the postseason thus far. Minnesota has now made the playoffs 13 times in coach Cheryl Reeve’s 15 seasons.

With the loss, its first since the Olympic break, Indiana dropped to 13–16. But that still has the Fever as the No. 7 seed in the league, which would put them in the playoffs.

The Fever finish off their two-game road trip at the Atlanta Dream on Monday at 7:30 p.m. ET. Up next for the Lynx is a road game at the Phoenix Mercury on Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET.