Napheesa Collier Suffers Ankle Injury in Lynx's Historic Rout of Aces

Minnesota Lynx superstar forward Napheesa Collier suffered a right ankle injury late in the third quarter of her team's 111-58 road win over the Las Vegas Aces on Saturday and was ruled out for the remainder of the game.

ESPN's Kendra Andrews provided more details.

"The injury occurred with less than a minute to go in the third quarter when Collier collided with teammate Alanna Smith and landed awkwardly on her right foot. Collier remained down for several minutes before getting up and walking off the court under her own power, but with assistance.

"She was officially ruled out of the game midway through the fourth quarter."

Collier posted 18 points, five assists, three rebounds and two steals in 26 minutes before exiting.

Minnesota's 53-point win was the largest margin of victory by a road team in WNBA history, per Andrews.

After the win, Minnesota sits atop the WNBA standings with a 24-5 record, six games ahead of the second-place New York Liberty. Minnesota is in the driver's seat for home-court advantage throughout the entire playoffs. The Lynx have three games with the Liberty from Aug. 10-19 and could very well find themselves with the No. 1 overall seed locked down before August ends.

Needless to say, this could be a very special year for the Lynx, who are looking for their first WNBA championship since 2017 and fifth overall.

However, there's obviously great concern regarding Collier, the heavy WNBA MVP favorite who entered Saturday averaging a league-high 23.8 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.8 steals. She entered the weekend averaging 28.4 points per game, so Collier was on fire heading into the home stretch of the regular season. As expected, Collier also has an amazing resume, including five WNBA All-Star appearances, two All-WNBA First Team nods and a pair of Olympic gold medals.

Hopefully Collier is back sooner rather than later. If she's forced to miss any time, Jessica Shepard should enter the starting lineup for her, as she's done in the past when Collier has sat games. Shepard notably had a 12-point, 15-rebound game against the Washington Mystics in Collier's place earlier this year. She also crushed the Aces on Saturday, dropping 18 points and 14 boards.

Minnesota does have a few days off now before visiting the Seattle Storm on Tuesday. The Lynx then welcome the Washington Mystics into town on Friday before embarking on those aforementioned three straight games against New York.