Napheesa Collier returned with a 26-point, seven-rebound, six-assist effort, including a couple huge baskets in overtime and the Lynx scored 10 of the final 12 points to win 96-92 in Atlanta.

Kayla McBride finished with 18 points, Courtney Williams had 16 and Bridget Carleton had a season-high four 3-pointers as part of a 14-point outing.

Collier, who missed the last two games with lower back soreness, came up clutch late.

“If this is playoffs I would have been back before but I wanted to make sure I was coming back not having any load management things on my mind, not having a minutes restriction,” Collier said.

Down by four in overtime, Williams scored on a pullup jumper and, after an Atlanta miss, a perfect pass from Williams set Collier up for a layup to even things back up with 1:45 to play.

Williams had eight of the team’s season-high tying 30 assists. And she didn’t turn the ball over after doing that 10 times in Tuesday’s four-point loss to Washington.

“The amazing thing about Courtney is as much as we believe in Courtney nobody believes in Courtney more than Courtney,” said Collier, adding a million-dollar idea would be to bottle Williams’ confidence. “Her belief in herself and the work she puts in, the confidence she has in her herself to shake things like that off knowing that she’s an incredible player it really is amazing. We knew that she was going to turn it around today.”

A fadeaway jumper by Collier gave the Lynx (13-2) a lead with 1:11 left in the extra session.

Atlanta thought they’d have a chance to tie it when Alanna Smith was whistled for a foul with 20.5 seconds left; however, the call was overturned after a lengthy video review. A pair of McBride free throws put the Lynx up by four.

Minnesota was 17 of 18 from the line, including McBride making all six free throws on a night she surpassed 5,000 career points. She’s made 37 of 38 such attempts this season.

Carleton usually inbounds the ball late in close games. With two great options her philosophy is simple.

“I have to get it to either (McBride) or Phee who’s shooting incredible (93.9%) from the free-throw line as well.”

The Dream scored inside at the other end, but McBride made a couple more from the charity stripe with 13.6 seconds left to ice the win. The Lynx tied a season high with 13 makes from deep on a season-high 34 attempts and avoided losing back-to-back games for the first time this season.

Long-distance shooting is what kept Minnesota in the game because the Dream (10-6) were able to impose their will in the paint, scoring a season-high 52 points in close and having a 40-28 rebounding advantage.

Jordin Canada split a pair of Lynx defenders for a driving layup with 3:49 in regulation to play and the Dream, who trailed by as many as 17 in the second quarter, had their biggest lead at 82-75.

“When we went to overtime, I felt really good about where the D was,” said coach Cheryl Reeve.