Sports
Lynx’s Collier has 32 in return from ankle injury
Napheesa Collier resumed her MVP campaign Sunday night as she returned from an ankle sprain that had kept her out for the past three weeks. It didn’t take much time for her to get back up to speed as she scored 32 points on 11-of-16 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds in the Minnesota Lynx‘s 97-84 win over the Indiana Fever.
“I had to knock some of the rust off,” Collier said, joking that teammate Courtney Williams would have finished with 11 assists if she hadn’t missed her first few shots. “It feels like you’re on the outside when you’re not playing. I’m having so much FOMO, so it feels good to be on the court with them again.”
Williams added, “I told [Collier] before the game, I’m sick of taking 18, 20 shots. I’m ready to be back to 10 or 12. So it feels good to have Phee back.”
Collier was injured in the third quarter of the Lynx’s Aug. 2 game against the Las Vegas Aces. Imaging revealed she avoided a major injury, sources told ESPN, and the issue ultimately held her out seven games. Minnesota went 5-2 without Collier during that stretch.
The crowd erupted as Collier was introduced into the starting lineup, and her team was just as excited to have her back. Collier managed to play 31 minutes.
“She’s that darn good,” Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said. “Obviously, she was ready to play. Having her play makes it easier for everyone else. We can all settle back into our roles and things we like to do.”
Since Collier went down, the Lynx made three roster additions, including trading for DiJonai Carrington at the trade deadline.
Now finally healthy, Williams called this Minnesota team “a real problem” as they head toward the postseason.
The Lynx found themselves trailing the Fever by as much as 10 points in the first quarter but slowly clawed their way back in. Then, in the final two minutes of the second quarter, the Lynx put together an 11-0 run to retake the lead.
With 77 seconds to go in the first half, Collier hit a turnaround jump shot — her 13th and 14th points of the night — to give Minnesota its first lead since the first 20 seconds of the game. When the Lynx returned from halftime, they never slowed back down.
“It all stemmed from being more active defensively, that’s how we got going,” Reeve said. “We just had more flow … that second quarter, we felt that shift. We felt that shift in how we were playing, and I felt like we held that for most of the rest of the game.”
With just seven games left on their regular-season schedule, the Lynx (30-7) have the best record in the WNBA and hold a six-game advantage over the Atlanta Dream in the standings. The Lynx are the only team to have clinched a playoff spot.
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Afghanistan’s captain Rashid Khan says his team have no “specific targets” despite producing groundbreaking performances in recent ICC global events, ahead of a T20 international tri-series starting Friday.
Rashid’s men face Pakistan in the opening game in Sharjah, with the United Arab Emirates the other side taking part in the event which serves as a warm-up for next month’s Asia Cup, also in the UAE.
Afghanistan reached the semi-finals of last year’s T20 World Cup in the United States and the Caribbean, and narrowly missed out on reaching the last four at the ODI Champions Trophy in Pakistan earlier in 2025.
Those performances followed an impressive showing at the 2023 one-day World Cup, when the Afghans produced statement wins over England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
“We do not have specific targets, and we do not want to put extra pressure on our players,” Rashid said Thursday when asked if Afghanistan are targeting the Asia Cup title.
“Our target is to play the brand of cricket we have played over the years. For us, the main target is to put in 200% effort on the ground,” he added.
“I think we have been doing well in the ICC events and although we haven’t played T20I cricket over the last few months, the guys have been playing in T20 leagues around the world and that has helped.”
Afghanistan beat Pakistan 2-1 in a T20I series at the same venue in 2023.
The 16-man Afghan squad for the tri-series includes fast-rising mystery spinner AM Ghazanfar along with fellow spin bowlers Noor Ahmad, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Rashid.
The Asia Cup gets under way on September 9, as teams ramp up their preparations for the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
Contrary to Afghanistan, Pakistan’s fortunes are dipping after they crashed out of the last T20 World Cup in the group stage before failing to win a match at the Champions Trophy.
This year they lost a T20 series in Bangladesh 2-1 but overcame the West Indies by the same margin.
Under new captain Salman Agha, Pakistan are going through a transition with former skippers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan out of the T20 squad.
“We are trying to build a team and this tri-series and then the Asia Cup will be a good opportunity to achieve that,” said Agha.
“We know both these events will be challenging but we are ready.”
All three teams in the tri-series will play each other twice, with the top two to face off in a final on September 7.
Besides Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UAE, the Asia Cup will also include defending champions India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Oman and Hong Kong.
Lionel Messi admitted to “playing with fear” as he returned from injury to score twice in Inter Miami’s 3-1 Leagues Cup semifinal win over Florida rivals Orlando City.
Messi converted a 77th-minute penalty at Chase Stadium and then added another goal in the 88th minute — after combining with Jordi Alba — as Miami came back from a goal down to clinch a place in the final.
“I wanted to be here,” Messi said after the game. “When I came back against [LA] Galaxy [on August 17] I felt some discomfort, I didn’t feel comfortable, but I wanted to play the game.
“It was really important to be here because it’s a difficult opponent, they’d beaten us in the two games we played against them this year. In the first half I was playing with a bit of fear, but after that I felt a bit [more] free.”
Orlando had beaten Miami 4-1 when the teams last met on Aug. 11, with Messi absent.
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The Argentina star has been struggling with a muscular injury in his right leg this month, and made a brief return against the Galaxy, before coming back into the team on Wednesday.
Miami will now play Seattle Sounders in the Leagues Cup final on Sunday, after they defeated LA Galaxy 2-0 in the other semifinal.
It will be Miami’s second appearance in the final in two years, after they won the tournament in 2023, while in 2024 they were eliminated in the round of 16.
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