The Phoenix Mercury have turned seizing home-court advantage into their postseason identity.
The Mercury gained the upper hand in their WNBA semifinal series against the top-seed Minnesota Lynx with a Game 2 road victory Tuesday, and they will begin defense of their home floor in the third game of the best-of-five series Friday.
The Mercury overcame a 20-point deficit in the final 16 minutes of regulation and scored the first six points of overtime while evening the series with an 89-83 victory.
“This is a battle-tested team,” Phoenix coach Nate Tibbetts said of the Lynx. “We haven’t done anything yet. We needed to get one there (Minneapolis). We did our job.”
The Lynx, who have won four league titles and lost in the finals last year, took Game 1 82-69 at home by outscoring the Mercury by 13 in the fourth quarter. Game 4 is in Phoenix on Sunday.
“It’s a resilient team,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said of her group. “It’s a team that responds. There are problem-solvers. Nobody said this stuff was going to be easy. It’s all part of the journey.
“Now we have to beat a really good team at their place. That’s a tall order. We’ll do all we can to do it.”
The Mercury took home court from defending champion New York in the second game of their first-round series and clinched it with a win in Game 3 at home.
Lynx point guard Courtney Williams has 43 points, 16 assists and 15 rebounds in this series. Napheesa Collier, the runner-up in league MVP voting, has 42 points and 15 rebounds.
Pressured by Alyssa Thomas, Collier missed a 16-footer at the buzzer after the Mercury’s Sami Whitcomb hit a 3-pointer with 4.3 seconds remaining to send Tuesday’s game into overtime.
“This is what it’s all about,” Thomas said. “You play the whole season for the playoffs and moments like these. I’ve been chasing a championship for a long time. I think this is our time.”
Thomas, who spent her first 11 seasons with Connecticut, directs Tibbetts’ free-flowing offense from the foul-line extended. The Mercury went small in their comeback Tuesday.
Thomas, third in MVP voting, led the league with a career-high 9.2 assists per game in the regular season. Williams was second at 6.2. Thomas has eight triple-doubles and is averaging 18.5 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds in the series.
Phoenix’s Satou Sabally had 24 points, including five 3-pointers, and nine rebounds in Game 2.
After making 3 of 23 threes in Game 1, the Mercury were 13 of 32 in the second game.
When ‘Sa’ makes threes, she’s pretty good,” Tibbetts said. “They have a decision to make, right? They are either going to take away the paint or take away threes. It’s really hard to do both.”
–Field Level Media
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