Napheesa Collier picked a memorable way to end a ten-month absence. In her first game of the season for the Minnesota Lynx on Wednesday, CBS Sports reports, she scored 24 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in 22 minutes, and Minnesota beat the Seattle Storm 86-76.
The number that stands out
A 24-point, 10-rebound game is a strong night for anyone. Doing it in 22 minutes is the detail that turned heads: it was the fewest minutes any player has needed for a 24-and-10 in WNBA history. For a player coming off a serious injury and easing back in, packing that production into fewer than half the game's available minutes is not what a cautious return usually looks like.
Collier had been out since September 2025, when she suffered a significant injury to her left leg, torn ligaments in her ankle and a torn shin muscle, in a playoff game against Phoenix. Ten months is a long time away from the floor, and returning to this level immediately is the exception, not the rule.
Why it matters for Minnesota
The Lynx did not need rescuing. They came into the night at 22-6, sitting in first place with a two-and-a-half game lead over Las Vegas and Golden State, and riding a seven-game winning streak that Collier's return pushed to eight. This is already the best team in the league, and it just got its best player back.
That is the part opponents will not enjoy. A first-place team surviving a ten-month absence of its franchise player, and then reintegrating that player in the middle of a winning streak, is a difficult problem for the rest of the WNBA. Collier finished last season averaging a career-high 22.9 points on 53.1 percent shooting and was the MVP runner-up to A'ja Wilson, for the second year in a row.
The unsettling footnote for everyone else
Her coach, Cheryl Reeve, offered the line that should worry the rest of the league most. Before the game, Reeve cautioned that this was "not full tilt," adding, "We still have a couple more steps to go before we see the Phee we know her to be."
In other words, the 24-and-10 in 22 minutes was Collier not yet all the way back. If that is the floor, the ceiling is the reason Minnesota looks like the team to beat, and the Herald will keep an eye on whether the Lynx's late-summer run turns into the title their first-half form suggests.
