Minnesota Lynx vs Phoenix Mercury Match Player Stats 2025

For the first three months of the 2025 WNBA season, Minnesota dominated Phoenix with increasing authority — winning three of four regular-season meetings by a combined 61 points. Then September arrived, the semifinals kicked in, and Phoenix turned the series into a grinder that went to the wire. The numbers tell a story about which players changed games, when, and why.

Latest Score: Lynx 79-66 Mercury (Jul 16, 2025) · Previous Score: Lynx 88-65 Mercury (Jun 3, 2025) · Last 5 Games: Mercury won 3, Lynx won 2 · Mercury PPG: 84.8 points per game · Lynx Standout: Napheesa Collier 18 pts, 11 reb

Two franchises with vastly different regular-season trajectories faced off repeatedly in 2025, with the matchup data revealing clear patterns in how each team performed under varying conditions.

Who is the Minnesota Lynx’s best player?

Minnesota finished the 2025 regular season with a 34-10 record — the best in the WNBA — and led Las Vegas by four games in the standings (ESPN WNBA). That dominance traces directly to Napheesa Collier, whose two-way production anchors the Lynx offense.

Napheesa Collier’s stats

Collier put up 18 points and 11 rebounds in the Lynx’s 88-65 win over Phoenix on June 3, 2025 (ESPN WNBA). She followed that with 20 points in a 101-72 first-round playoff victory over Golden State, leading five Lynx players in double figures (ESPN WNBA Recap). Her ability to score and crash the boards gives Minnesota a consistent interior option that Phoenix struggled to contain across all five meetings.

Key contributions vs Mercury

Courtney Williams also carved out a significant role against Phoenix. She scored 23 points in Game 1 of the WNBA Semifinals on September 21, 2025, when the Lynx took an early 1-0 series lead with an 82-69 win (ESPN WNBA). Earlier in the regular season, Williams posted 12 points, seven rebounds, and five assists in the Lynx’s 79-66 victory on July 16 (ESPN WNBA), showing the kind of all-around production that makes Minnesota dangerous beyond any single star.

The implication: Collier provides the foundation, but Williams demonstrated the depth that makes Minnesota capable of winning without relying solely on a single standout performer.

Have the Minnesota Lynx won a WNBA championship?

The Minnesota Lynx are among the most decorated franchises in WNBA history, having won four championships — in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017 — before the 2025 season began.

Championship history

Minnesota built its dynasty on a core group that included future Hall of Famers, compiling four titles in a seven-year window. That winning pedigree shaped expectations entering 2025, and the Lynx entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed (ESPN WNBA), giving them home-court advantage throughout the bracket.

Recent playoff status

The 2025 playoff run ended in the WNBA Semifinals against Phoenix Mercury. After taking Games 1 and 2 of the series, Minnesota dropped Games 3 and 4 — losing 84-76 on September 26 and 86-81 on September 28 — to send the series to at least five games (ESPN WNBA). Whether the Lynx advance past this round determines whether the championship window stays open for another season.

The pattern: Minnesota’s playoff fate hinged on Game 5 against a Phoenix squad that had found its rhythm at the worst possible time for the top seed.

Are the Minnesota Lynx out of the WNBA playoffs?

As of September 28, 2025, the WNBA Semifinals series between Minnesota and Phoenix stood tied at 2-2, with Game 5 remaining. The Lynx were not yet eliminated — but their fate was on the line in the deciding matchup.

2025 playoff elimination

Minnesota came into the semifinals as the top seed, having finished the regular season with a 34-10 record. They took Game 1 (82-69) and held a 20-point lead in Game 2 before Phoenix mounted a historic comeback, forcing overtime and winning 89-83 (ESPN WNBA Philippines). The series momentum shifted sharply when Mercury won back-to-back games in Minnesota — Game 3 by eight points and Game 4 by five — forcing a winner-take-all scenario.

Performance vs Mercury

The pattern across all five Lynx-Mercury matchups in 2025 showed Minnesota winning when it controlled the glass and forced Mercury into poor shooting. In their Game 3 loss, the Lynx shot just 42.3% from the field (30-71) while Mercury shot 25.0% from three (6-24) (ESPN WNBA Box Score). That combination usually favors the Lynx — but in Games 3 and 4, Phoenix found enough offense behind Satou Sabally and Alyssa Thomas to win anyway.

Who is the Russian player on the Minnesota Lynx?

The Lynx roster in 2025 included international players, and among them was Anastasiia Kosu, listed with Russian nationality on the team sheet.

Anastasiia Kosu profile

Kosu appeared on the Minnesota roster during the 2025 season as one of the Lynx’s international acquisitions. Her role against Phoenix was limited in terms of minutes logged, but the presence of a European-sized post player gave Minnesota additional size options off the bench during the regular season.

Stats in Lynx-Mercury matchups

Detailed minute-by-minute stats for Kosu’s appearances in the five Lynx-Mercury games are not fully available in the public box scores. What the data shows clearly is that Minnesota’s rotation leaned heavily on Collier, Williams, McBride, and Hiedeman — with the international bench contributing in limited, situational minutes rather than as primary scorers.

Lynx vs Mercury Last 5 Games Player Stats

The last five Lynx-Mercury meetings split 3-2 in Mercury’s favor — but the context matters. Three of Mercury’s wins came in the semifinals, when stakes rose and Phoenix’s best players elevated their games.

Key performers

Across all five 2025 meetings, Minnesota’s most consistent performers were Napheesa Collier (18 points, 11 rebounds on June 3), Kayla McBride (18 points on July 16), and Natisha Hiedeman (game-winning three-pointer on May 30). Phoenix’s key contributors in the series included Alyssa Thomas (23 points in Game 4), Satou Sabally (23 points including 15 in the fourth quarter of Game 3), and DeWanna Bonner, who hit two late three-pointers in the Game 4 comeback.

Head-to-head averages

Phoenix averaged 84.8 points per game across the last five matchups, with that number inflated by the higher-scoring semifinals games. The Lynx won their three regular-season meetings by an average margin of 17.3 points — but in the playoffs, the games tightened considerably. Minnesota shot 42.9% from the field in its lone loss (July 9) while Mercury shot just 26.1% from three, yet still won — a sign that rebounding and second-chance points mattered more than three-point percentage on that night.

What this means: even subpar shooting nights for Phoenix didn’t guarantee a Lynx win when Minnesota failed to dominate the boards.

The 2025 Lynx-Mercury matchup proved one thing beyond any doubt: Phoenix belongs in the same conversation as the top seed — but Minnesota has the roster depth and star power to win the games that matter most. The semifinals showed Mercury’s fighting spirit, with back-to-back comeback wins against a team that had dominated them all regular season. For fans, the series delivered exactly what a grudge match should: shifting momentum, clutch performances, and a Game 5 that will decide who survives.