With five minutes remaining Friday night against the Connecticut Sun, the Lynx and their perfect record were on the brink. Facing a winless team, Minnesota stared down a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit with a little more than five minutes to play.

Then, a defensive lightbulb — Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said she’d seen barely a flicker to that point — turned bright. With it came an offensive onslaught spearheaded by forward Napheesa Collier.

“Of those 40 minutes, we played five of them defensively,” Reeve said. “We had some solid stretches, but not enough to do the dictating. If the last five minutes is that lightbulb, that would be great.”

In the matchup of an unbeaten squad and a team vying to win for the first time in 2025, the Lynx won 76-70. The result made Minnesota 4-0, its best start to a season since 2017, when the Lynx opened 9-0 en route to the WNBA title.

The Lynx trailed 68-53 with 5:20 remaining.

“We were down by a lot, [but] we just had to chip away,” Lynx guard Natasha Hiedeman said. “We all just believe in each other, and we’ve been in situations like this before. We knew it wasn’t over until the buzzer rang, so [we] just kept fighting and fighting.”

The Lynx outscored the Sun 27-15 in the fourth quarter. Collier commanded attention throughout the game, scoring a game-high 33 points on 11-for-21 shooting. Ten of her points came in the final 5:20, and she also snagged 11 rebounds in the game. Reeve said her success was all the more impressive given the “terrible whistle” Collier received from the referees Friday.

Forward Jessica Shepard suggested the game marked an “MV Phee” moment. Collier is averaging 29.5 points this season, most in the WNBA.