Clark, Collier Face WNBA Playoff Elimination as Fever, Lynx Fight for Survival

The WNBA playoffs just started on Sunday, and already, four teams are on the brink of elimination. On Tuesday night, both the Minnesota Lynx and Indiana Fever will fight for their playoff lives against the New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces , respectively.

The No. 8 Liberty stunned the No. 1 Lynx in Minneapolis, 91-75, and now have the chance to become the first No. 8 seed to topple a No. 1 seed in the history of the WNBA playoffs in front of their home crowd at Barclays Center. Meanwhile, the No. 3 Aces trounced the No. 6 Fever 102-85, and now head to Indianapolis in search of a sweep.

Here's what the Lynx and the Fever need to do to keep their seasons alive.

Lynx: Napheesa Collier needs to be more aggressive

A lot of the focus in the wake of the Lynx's Game 1 loss has been on Olivia Miles , the Rookie of the Year winner who looked very much like a newcomer in her WNBA postseason debut, with only 11 points on 25% shooting, eight rebounds and one assist. And yes, Miles needs to be better for the Lynx to move on. But she also needs her veteran teammates to step up and take pressure off of her shoulders -- especially Napheesa Collier .

Collier only had 12 points, five boards and three assists on Sunday. She got into foul trouble in the third quarter and pretty much turned into a bystander for the rest of the game, going only 2 of 6 for four points in the final 20 minutes as the Liberty ran away with the game.

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"I'd like her to be more assertive," Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve -- who on her fifth WNBA Coach of the Year award on Monday -- told reporters after the game regarding Collier. "She's great when she moves. You know, she's just like Stewie when she moves."

Comparing anyone to Stewie sounds like hyperbole, especially on a day when Breanna Stewart had 34 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, two steals and two blocks. But Collier is a player who can be at that level. She was runner-up to A'ja Wilson for MVP in 2024 and 2025, and fourth behind Stewart, Wilson and Alyssa Thomas the year prior. Over the last year, injuries have derailed Collier from her MVP trajectory -- she started having ankle issues last August and missed the first 28 games this year after having two ankle surgeries in the offseason. She's understandably not at 100 percent yet -- she estimates it's closer to 80 percent -- but she's talented enough that she should still be able to have a massive impact on the game.

The Lynx had a better regular season than they had any right to be thanks to Miles's quick adjustments to the pros and Reeve's guiding hand. But to be a championship team, they need Collier to show up in the playoffs the way that other superstars like Stewart and Wilson do. On the road in front of a raucous Brooklyn crowd on Tuesday night, Collier needs to take the team on her back, demand the ball and attack the basket. If she does, the rest of the team will follow her lead and the Lynx will head home for Game 3.

Fever: Caitlin Clark has to reduce turnovers

The Fever were absolutely run off the court by the Aces this weekend, and it is hard to point to just one thing that needs to improve for them to tie up the series. Indiana gave up 102 points to the Aces and Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell  (who combined for 47 points per game in the regular season, the highest total for a duo in WNBA history), only combined for 27 points in Game 1.

Mitchell was 4 of 16 for 12 points, three assists and zero rebounds, going only 1 of 6 from outside, while Clark was 6 of 17 for 15 points, 10 assists and three rebounds, going 3 of 10 from 3-point range. That simply isn't going to cut it. The defense has to be better, and Clark and Mitchell have to make buckets.

But both of those things will be much easier to accomplish if the Fever take better care of the ball, particularly in the first half. And that needs to start with Clark.

At the end of the game, the Fever and Aces were tied on the stat sheet with 17 turnovers each, but that hardly tells the whole story. The Fever gave up 28 points off of those turnovers, while the Aces only gave up 18. Furthermore, the Fever's turnovers came earlier in the game, which allowed the Aces to run in transition, get easy buckets and find an offensive rhythm. The second quarter was particularly brutal for Indiana -- they had seven turnovers, compared to four from the Aces in that frame. The Aces were able to win that quarter 35-24 and take a 15-point lead into halftime.

Clark had six turnovers on the day, with four coming in the first half. This has been an ongoing issue for the Iowa star, who led the league in turnovers this year by a wide margin -- she had 4.6 turnovers per game, while Alyssa Thomas was second in the league with 3.5 per game and only six players averaged more than three per game. Now, some of that just comes from her having such a high-risk, high-reward game, and Clark certainly brings her fair share of rewards. But in the playoffs, the best players find ways to minimize their weaknesses. On Sunday, Clark's was exposed, and it put her team in a hole early. That has to be cleaned up on Tuesday night.

"There's no defense for 28 points off of turnovers," Fever coach Stephanie White said after the game. "So we've got to be better screen setters. Our timing and our pace, because they're going to force us to play in the half court, has to be better."

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/wnba/news/wnba-playoffs-caitlin-clark-napheesa-collier-step-up-save-seasons/)._