One UConn legend is on the verge of retirement, while another is just getting started.

Diana Taurasi hasn’t yet spoken about her potential retirement after 20 seasons in the WNBA, but if Wednesday was her final game, she’ll be outplayed by another UConn player, one whose legacy is just beginning.

Napheesa Collier led the No. 2 Lynx past the No. 7 Mercury with a 42-point performance in a 101-88 Game 2 first-round series win. A day earlier, Collier spoke about playing with and against Taurasi.

“It seems like it’s her retirement tour,” Collier said. “I don’t know. She’s been pretty quiet about it. But she’s clearly a UConn star, a GOAT of the league.”

“I feel privileged to have played with her and against her on Team USA, and hopefully we can end her career on Wednesday.”

That last sentence brought a sly smile to Collier’s face. She was joking… sort of.

Collier wanted to win Game 2 at all costs rather than go to Phoenix for a decisive Game 3, and the forward did everything he could to make that happen. In the sweep, Collier totaled 80 points, the most of any player in a two-game playoff series. Her 42 points also tied a postseason record for most points in a game.

And yet, when Collier looked at the results after the match, she had only one thought.

“I should have made my free throws,” she said with that same sly smile.

Collier made 12 of 14 free throws. One more shot would have broken the single-game scoring record. But head coach Cheryl Reeve didn’t let her star escape recognizing the magnitude of her run.

“She tied the single-game record, but she has the two-game record,” Reeve said. “So she’s number one in that.”

Collier has been Minnesota’s catalyst this season, averaging 20.4 points per game and finishing second in MVP voting. When the Lynx need a basket, Collier is the one to get it. That was the case in Game 1, when Minnesota took on a resilient Mercury team that trailed by 23 in the first half to lead by one in the fourth quarter. Collier scored 38 points in that win, something Reeve addressed in the locker room before Game 2.

“I told the team before the game, ‘Look, she’s not going to get 38 tonight.’ So she came out and said, ‘Coach, you were right.’ She got 42,” Reeve said, laughing. “So that was an incredible, incredible run.”

Collier scored in a variety of ways in Wednesday’s win. She got to the rim, finished in the midrange and hit 3-pointers. Collier shot 70% from the field in Game 2 and 57.9% in Game 1.

“Phee just has the ability, every game, to know what she’s going to get and how she’s going to get it,” Reeve said. “If they put her in the paint, she’s going to find herself in the paint. … She understands how to play in motion and how to be on the perimeter and shoot the basketball. She just finds different ways to impact the game.”

With the win over Phoenix, the No. 2 Lynx advance to a semifinal matchup with No. 3 Connecticut. The two teams have met three times this season. Connecticut won the first 83-81 in overtime and the second 78-73, but Minnesota prevailed in its most recent game, a 78-76 victory on Sept. 17.

Collier was the Lynx’s leading scorer in two games, with 31 points in the first game and 25 in the second.