Napheesa Collier scored 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead five Minnesota players scoring in double figures and the Lynx beat the Washington Mystics 78-71 on Sunday to win for the 10th time in 11 games.
Minnesota (26-9) has won three consecutive games and has a 1 1/2-game lead over the Connecticut Sun for the No. 2 seed in the playoffs with five games remaining in the regular season.
Washington (11-24) had won five of its last six games and is 1 1/2 games behind Chicago for the eighth and final playoff spot. The Sky currently hold the tiebreaker over the Mystics due to a 2-1 lead in the regular-season series between the teams. The last meeting will be Wednesday in Chicago.
Collier converted a three-point play with 2:37 to play that gave Minnesota the lead for good at 70-67 and, after a couple missed 3-point shots and a shot clock violation by the Mystics, Bridget Carleton hit a pull-up jumper to push the lead to five points with 1:25 left.
Courtney Williams scored 12 points for the Lynx. Carleton, Natisha Hiedeman and Kayla McBride each added 10.
Brittney Sykes led the Mystics with 13 points, Ariel Atkins added 12 and Stefanie Dolson 11, including three 3-pointers.
Atkins scored 10 points and the Mystics shot 48.6% (17 of 35) from the field in the first half as they took a 39-35 lead into the intermission.
Collier scored six points and grabbed seven rebounds in the third quarter as the Lynx limited Washington to 13 points. Myisha Hines-Allen and Hiedeman converted back-to-back three-point plays and Collier capped an 8-0 spurt that gave Minnesota a 59-55 lead with 6:57 to play.
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