Adding in a road victory against the Washington Mystics on Thursday, the Mercury have won six in a row, improving to 27-14 under second-year coach Nate Tibbetts and ensuring a top-four finish in the league. They face the Connecticut Sun on Saturday, host the Los Angeles Sparks on Tuesday and finish the regular season against the Dallas Wings on Thursday.
“Typically, throughout the year, you’re talking about the process and you want to do things the right way,” Tibbetts said after the team’s victory against the Fever. “Obviously, that’s still important now, but right now, we’re in the business of winning games.”
The Mercury started their well-timed homestand Aug. 28 with an 83-79 victory against the Chicago Sky. On Aug. 30, they toppled the defending WNBA champion New York Liberty 80-63. Phoenix closed it out with an 85-79 victory against the Indiana Fever.
The Sky had already been eliminated from the postseason, but that performance was impressive in its own way, nonetheless. The Sky game was a breakout game for Kahleah Copper, who has battled injuries off and on this season. In fact, she was sidelined for the first few weeks following a left knee arthroscopy in May. She later missed time with a right hamstring strain and sustained a rib injury.
Through 25 games, she has averaged 16.1 points and 9.0 rebounds, while playing an important leadership role in this revamped rotation. Her 28 points in that contest were a team high and her second-highest mark of the year.
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The second game was a defensive showcase with the Mercury outscoring the Liberty 26-7 in points off turnovers and leading by as many as 19 points. Copper led the team once again with 22 points, and DeWanna Bonner pulled down seven crucial defensive rebounds to keep the transition game moving.
“One thing we’re going to do is play defense,” Bonner told the media following that game. “Sometimes shots don’t drop, and you know that. But one thing I think, before I even got here, if you ask [Copper] from the beginning of training camp, they said they wanted to play defense. And if you’re on the team with Alyssa Thomas, you’re gonna play defense. You’re going to guard or you’re not going to be on the floor.”
Entering Thursday night’s games, Phoenix ranked fourth in the league on Basketball Reference with a defensive rating of 101.8. They were also fourth in points allowed and pace.
“We hadn’t had maybe a big win like that against a good team in a while,” Tibbetts said, referring to the victory against the Liberty. “I think also, like we can see the light, like we can see where we’re headed with the playoffs coming. … We’re a lot like a lot of these other teams in this league, like every game matters.”
Facing an injury-laden Fever squad, the Mercury turned to their MVP candidate Thomas, who led the team with 23 points and nine assists. She also pulled down nine rebounds, nearly recording another triple-double on top of her league record seven this season. The bench also played an essential role, outscoring the Fever’s backups 31-12. Bonner and Sami Whitcomb led the Phoenix reserves with 19 and 10 points, respectively.
“The first half we had a lot of injuries and now the second half is forget about us, getting our chemistry and yeah, we’re just going to go out there and continue to do things, continue to fine-tune and get ourselves ready for the playoffs,” Thomas said.
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The Mercury have presented five different starting lineups this season, only recently settling into a consistent group with Copper, Thomas, Natasha Mack, Satou Sabally and rookie Monique Akoa Makani. Those five have started each of the last six victories. As Tibbetts pointed out, that group has started just 14 games together with Witcomb, Bonner, Kitija Laksa and Kathryn Westbeld also earning starts throughout the season.
“I think we have the right pieces,” Bonner said. “We have a lot of vets on this team who’ve been in the playoffs, and playoffs are a different beast. The morning of the playoffs, you can feel the energy. The atmosphere is different. So you gotta know how to handle that. You guys gotta know how to just stay calm, stay level-headed, not get too high, can’t get too low. So I think we got great people, great pieces.”
