With one of the league’s best players on the roster, it can sometimes be easy for the Minnesota Lynx to be unaware what Napheesa Collier does during a game.

“She just makes the right play, the simple play, and it looks easy for her. It’s just the talent she has, playing at a high level. She’s capable of doing this every night against anybody,” said Bridget Carleton.

On Saturday, “this” meant Collier finishing with a team-high 30 points, one shy of her season apex. She made 13 of 16 shots and was lethal with turnaround jumpers in the lane.

Minnesota made its first 10 shots of the third quarter — five by Collier — to blow open a close game en route to a 99-83 win at Washington.

The Lynx (19-8) shot a season-best 57.8%, making 37 of 64 attempts, including 11 of 21 from 3-point range.

Collier missed the final five games before the Olympic break with plantar fasciitis before winning a gold medal with Team USA. Coach Cheryl Reeve said “it was top of mind to get Napheesa Collier going again.”

How Collier finds success sounds simple enough.

“Just being aggressive and knowing that the coaches have confidence in me and my teammates have confidence in me so just really trying to read the defense and get to my shot,” she said.

Keyed by Collier and locking in defensively to get out in transition, Minnesota outscored the Mystics (6-21) 33-17 in the third quarter, including a game-breaking 27-9 run, to lead by 22 entering the final 10 minutes.

Collier made all six of her shots in the quarter, including a 3-pointer, while also grabbing four rebounds and getting a steal.

“Phee’s the type of player that it can happen whenever, and I feel like every game she plays she makes it so much easier for everybody on the court,” said Carleton, who finished with 16 points, including makes on three of her five attempts from deep.

Added Reeve: “We never worry about Phee taking bad shots, she’s always going to make the right basketball play. But playing to her and causing rotations helps our team overall. I thought we were pretty intentional in our transition. We were getting to our drag screens pretty quickly. I thought we overall moved the ball decently and found people in good spots.”

The league’s top assist team at 23 per game, the Lynx finished with 26, 10 more than they had Thursday.

Courtney Williams finished with 14 points and seven rebounds, including 10 of the team’s 17 points before the half.

“Court was terrific managing pick and roll in the second quarter, she was making some shots. … She was making the right reads and kind of gave us momentum going into the half to understand what needed to happen in the third quarter,” Reeve said.

Sitting atop the Western Conference, next up for the Lynx is a home-and-home matchup with the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces, starting Wednesday in Sin City.

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