Lynx roll over Mercury 101-88 and move into the second round of the WNBA playoffs

As Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said, Collier has the ability to know what she's getting and how she's getting it in every game.

“She's like an amoeba,” Reeve said. “When she's in the box, she's going to block and roll. When things get tough in the box, she knows how to move and how to get to the perimeter. She finds different ways to impact the game.”

When Collier reached a new level, a historic career could have ended. Mercury player Diana Taurasi, the league's all-time leading scorer, has hinted that this, her 20th season, could be her last. She committed a foul late in the game and received a standing ovation from the 8,769 spectators. Taurasi (10 points) was one of five Mercury players to reach double figures in scoring, including 24 from Brittney Griner. Those two and Collier played for Reeve at the gold medalist US Olympic in Paris over the summer.

But Wednesday belonged to Collier. Reeve doesn't keep track of individual points during games. But toward the end of the first half, she looked at the scoreboard and saw that Collier had scored 23 points in the first half. “I thought, 'Wow, that's pretty good,'” Reeve said.

And she had only just begun.

Before the game, Reeve warned her team that Collier was unlikely to reach the 38 points she scored in Game 1. When Collier was finally substituted with 58.3 seconds left, she told Reeve, “Coach, you were right.”