Souhan: Four thoughts on the Lynx heading into the semifinals

Four thoughts on the Lynx as they prepare for the WNBA semifinals:

… but they just scored 203 points in two playoff games. Consider that WNBA games last only 40 minutes, and the Lynx scored 100 points or more in consecutive playoff games for the first time in their long and glorious franchise history.

… but she wasn’t expected to start her first WNBA game, but did so because of an injury to another player.

In the past week, she finished second in the MVP voting to A’ja Wilson, who had a historic statistical season, then scored 80 points in two playoff victories against Phoenix while shooting 64% from the field.

She was named Associated Press Defensive Player of the Year, and she keeps adding moves that make her almost unguardable.

Collier can score off the dribble, has developed a beautiful fallaway jumper, can hit the three, is proficient at driving past bigger opponents and is brilliant at cutting to the basket.

She’s also the rare scorer who doesn’t seem to care about stats. Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve has pushed her for years to take more shots and act more like a superstar.

Collier has agreed to the former without caring much about the latter.

… and the two technical fouls committed Wednesday night were almost poetic.

Mercury star Diana Taurasi getting a technical for starting a tussle with Lynx forward Myisha Hines-Allen? What could be more fitting for one of the great trash-talking basketball players of her generation in what might have been her last game?

Another technical might have meant more in the context of the game.

Courtney Williams immediately became one of the team’s leaders when Reeve signed her to play point guard.

When Phoenix’s Sophie Cunningham threw Bridget Carleton to the floor Wednesday night, Williams jumped into the fray, yelling at Cunningham. The Lynx dominated the rest of the way.

Williams has exceeded all reasonable expectations as a player, and a leader.

… be better than Indiana.

It’s a low bar. Let’s not trip over it.

This weekend the Connecticut Sun will arrive in Minneapolis to prepare for Game 1 of the WNBA semifinals against the Lynx on Sunday night at Target Center.

Sun star Alyssa Thomas, after her team eliminated the Indiana Fever, said this:

“In my 11-year career, I’ve never experienced the racial comments from the Indiana Fever fan base,” Thomas said. “It’s unacceptable, honestly. There’s no place for it. We’ve been professional throughout the whole, entire thing, but I’ve never been called the things that I’ve been called on social media.”

I’ve been writing extensively about the WNBA, and particularly the Lynx, since 2011. I was late to the party, but I’m thrilled that the Lynx forced me to pay attention because of their greatness in the 2010s.

The first thing I noticed when covering the Lynx regularly was that the fan base was different than most. Sure, Lynx fans want to win. Many of them also recognize that the Lynx and WNBA transcend what happens on the court. They stand for inclusiveness, equity and equality.

The way Fever fans treated Thomas, one of the great players in the game who won a gold medal while playing for Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve in Paris, is disgusting, and raises an existential question for the WNBA:

Can the league fulfill its growth ambitions without attracting the casual racism and idiocy that taints other sports?

The NFL and NBA have proved that what happens on the playing surface is not the key to financial success. They are financial titans because they learned to keep their fans engaged all year.

That approach and their widespread popularity inadvertently opens the doors for all kinds of fans, including trolls and bigots.

Minnesotans can prove they’re better than that.

Cheer Thomas and her teammates during introductions. Set an example.