How 3 former Phoenix Mercury coaches built a WNBA dynasty
Phoenix Mercury head coaches Paul Westhead, Corey Gaines and Sandy Brondello each won a WNBA championship as they built a dynasty in the desert.
With the Indiana Fever losing earlier in the night to the Las Vegas Aces, the seventh-seeded Phoenix Mercury had an opportunity to gain ground in the playoff seedings. But instead, the Mercury fell flat in a loss to the Connecticut Sun Friday night in Phoenix.
The Mercury (17-20) squandered a competitive first half, struggling badly in the third quarter, outscored 24-6, and losing 88-69 to remain 1.5 games behind the Fever.
“I thought we played a really good first half,” coach Nate Tibbetts said. “We did a good job with defensive rebounding, limited our turnovers after the first quarter, but we just ran into a tough shooting third quarter. We had some good looks, but give their defense credit. They’re a good defensive team.”
The Sun went on a 20-0 run in the decisive third quarter. Former Mercury forward DeWanna Bonner had seven points in that stretch. The Mercury couldn’t get anything going from 3-point range, going 0-for-10 and shooting 15% overall (3-for-20) in the third.
Brionna Jones led the Sun with 20 points, but Marina Mabrey’s 19 points sparked the bench and showcased a balanced Sun attack. The Sun bench outscored the Mercury bench, 27-12.
“Like anything, it’s frustrating because we had a great week at practice and got to a lot of things we had to work on for a while,” Diana Taurasi said. “We’ll come back tomorrow, get on that plane, and go to Chicago and try to win another game. That’s all we can really do.”
Alyssa Thomas posted 11 of the Sun’s 23 assists.
Brittney Griner led the Mercury with 26 points and nine rebounds, but the rest of the starting five struggled without leading scorer Kahleah Copper. Copper was held out with a back injury and was replaced by Celeste Taylor in the lineup.
With Copper missing, the Mercury didn’t see much scoring in the first quarter outside of Diana Taurasi, Natasha Cloud, and Griner. The trio scored all the Mercury’s 17 points in the opening quarter.
The trend continued as Cloud was the only scorer to post double figures with 17 points. Monique Billings helped the glass game with seven rebounds as the Mercury were able to cut the deficit to five.
Griner scored 12 points in the first half, including her ninth 3-pointer of the season and helped the Mercury keep it close against the Connecticut Sun, who led Phoenix at halftime, 46-38.
“For the most part, we played better. That’s a really good team,” Taurasi said. “We’re just going to find a way to get healthy these next two weeks and go into that playoff no matter who we play and give ourselves a chance.
“We need to tap back into some of those things we did when we were playing well, which wasn’t long ago.”
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Where are the Mercury in WNBA playoff standings?
The Mercury are the seventh seed in the WNBA playoffs behind the Fever (19-19). The Fever’s 78-74 loss to the Aces and the Mercury’s loss kept the Fever 1.5 games ahead of the Mercury.
The Connecticut Sun (27-10) are one game behind the Minnesota Lynx (28-9) for the second spot and hold the tiebreaker after going 2-0 against them.
The Mercury have three games to play, while the Fever have two games. Both games for the Fever are against teams in the draft lottery.
The Mercury play twice on the road, the Chicago Sky on Sunday, Sept. 15 and the Los Angeles Sparks on Tuesday, Sept. 17.
Phoenix wraps the regular season by hosting Seattle next Thursday, Sept. 19.
Chicago’s star rookie Angel Reese will not play against the Mercury, having suffered a season-ending wrist injury. Reese had 26 double-doubles, the second most in a season, and earlier this summer set a WNBA record with 15 consecutive double-doubles.
The Washington Mystics (13-24) overtook the Sky on Friday for the final playoff spot.
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Publish date : 2024-09-14 03:56:00
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