Lynx’s Napheesa Collier named WNBA’s defensive player of year

The Minnesota Lynx collected multiple honors Sunday, as Napheesa Collier was named the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, while Cheryl Reeve, who led the U.S. women’s national team to a gold medal in the Paris Olympics, was named both the league’s coach of the year and executive of the year.

The awards highlight a great run for the Lynx, the No. 2 seed in the WNBA playoffs who host the Connecticut Sun on Sunday (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) in Game 1 of their semifinals matchup.

Collier, who finished second to Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson in the MVP race, received 36 votes from a national panel of 67 media members to win the award for the first time.

Wilson, the league’s DPOY the past two seasons, was second with 26 votes. The Seattle Storm’s Ezi Magbegor was third with three votes, and the Sun’s DiJonai Carrington and Minnesota’s Courtney Williams each got one vote.

Collier put together the greatest two-game stretch in WNBA playoffs history, scoring 80 points combined in a pair of wins over the Phoenix Mercury in the first round. The Lynx also led the WNBA by averaging 101.5 points through two games of the playoffs.

As great as she has been offensively, Collier was the leader of a defense that finished second in defensive rating and first in opponents’ effective field goal percentage. Per ESPN Research, Collier held opponents to 36.2% field goal shooting as the closest defender this season, the top mark in the league.

Collier ranked second in the WNBA in steals (1.91 per game), third in rebounds (9.7 per game) and seventh in blocks (1.41 per game), posting career-high averages in all three categories. She joins former Lynx standout Sylvia Fowles, a four-time winner, as the only franchise players to win the award.

“All I’m focusing on is making it to the next round and playing our next game,” Collier said Wednesday after tying a WNBA postseason record with 42 points in a win over the Mercury. “I think that stuff just comes from really great teammates. We had so many assists. I think all of my baskets were assisted. My teammates did a great job of finding me and just taking advantage of what the defense was giving us.”

Reeve, who set a record with her fourth WNBA coach of the year honor, didn’t skip a beat after leading the national team to a gold medal in Paris. She guided the Lynx to a 14-2 record after the Olympics break, the top mark in the WNBA. But her personnel decisions were as pivotal as her coaching.

In February, she signed free agents Williams and Alanna Smith, who both have been key players during this run. Williams finished sixth in assists this season and Smith connected on 40% of her 3-point attempts, creating matchup problems for opposing teams as a 6-foot-4 threat from the perimeter who also averaged 1.5 blocks.

In August, Reeve traded for Myisha Hines-Allen, who has become a catalyst off the bench for the Lynx.

“We have so many threats on the floor, it’s really hard to rotate too many people to one player,” Collier said last week.

Reeve joins Curt Miller as the only individuals to win the Coach of the Year and the Executive of the Year awards in the same season. Reeve got 62 of 67 votes for the coaching award, while New York Liberty’s Sandy Brondello, whose team is the No. 1 seed in the playoffs, received four votes. Indiana Fever coach Christie Sides, whose team reached the playoffs for the first time since 2016, received one vote.

The WNBA also released its All-Defensive team, with Collier, Wilson, Magbegor, Carrington and the Liberty’s Breanna Stewart being named to the first team. Minnesota’s Smith, Alyssa Thomas of Connecticut, Nneka Ogwumike of Seattle, Jonquel Jones of New York and Natasha Cloud of Phoenix were named to the second team.