{"id":186233,"date":"2025-10-03T00:38:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T00:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/186233\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T00:38:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T00:38:15","slug":"mercurys-uno-queen-alyssa-thomas-drops-draw-4s-ahead-of-wnba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/186233\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercury\u2019s UNO Queen Alyssa Thomas drops Draw 4s ahead of WNBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2014 Alyssa Thomas\u2019<\/a> competitiveness stretches far beyond the basketball court.<\/p>\n

Just ask Phoenix Mercury<\/a> guard Kahleah Copper<\/a>, who lost a not-so-friendly game of UNO during the team\u2019s journey to Las Vegas ahead of Game 1 of the WNBA Finals on Friday against the Las Vegas Aces. Thomas and Copper may be teammates when they suit up in purple and orange, butthe pair are each other’s biggest competitors off the court.<\/p>\n

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“I’m the best (UNO player) on the team,” Thomas triumphantly bragged on Thursday, offering a lighthearted glimpse into how the Mercury are staying loose on an otherwise serious business trip. Thomas turned to Copper, “Do you want to tell people the truth?”<\/p>\n

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Sept. 21: The Minnesota Lynx’s Courtney Williams (10) dribbles the ball past the Phoenix Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas (25) during Game 1 at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

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WNBA playoffs 2025: See the basketball stars in action in the second round<\/p>\n

Sept. 21: The Minnesota Lynx’s Courtney Williams (10) dribbles the ball past the Phoenix Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas (25) during Game 1 at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

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WNBA playoffs 2025: See the basketball stars in action in the second round<\/p>\n

Sept. 21: The Phoenix Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas (25) shoots the ball over the Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier (24) during Game 1 at Target Center.<\/p>\n

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Sept. 21: The Indiana Fever’s Odyssey Sims (1) celebrates with teammates during the Fever’s 89-73 Game 1 win over the Las Vegas Aces at Michelob Ultra Arena.<\/p>\n

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WNBA playoffs 2025: See the basketball stars in action in the second round<\/p>\n

Sept. 21: The Indiana Fever’s Kelsey Mitchell (0) attempts to score a layup while defended by the Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson (22) and Jewell Loyd (24) during the second quarter of Game 1 at Michelob Ultra Arena.<\/p>\n

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5 \/ 5<\/p>\n

WNBA playoffs 2025: See the basketball stars in action in the second round<\/p>\n

Sept. 21: The Indiana Fever’s Kelsey Mitchell (0) attempts to score a layup against the Las Vegas Aces during Game 1 at Michelob Ultra Arena.<\/p>\n

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The truth is Copper publicly challenged her teammates to the card game, writing<\/a> on her X account on Wednesday, “Brb, on this plane bout to put BTA in UNO.. (so glad AT not on these socials).”<\/p>\n

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Well, Thomas is at least monitoring social media because she fired off her first post on X since July to set the record straight, telling<\/a> Copper, “That\u2019s not how I remember it.” Apparently Thomas, the triple-double machine, powered up plenty of Draw 4s.<\/p>\n

“I would like to say I am the best UNO player, however, I did take a couple L’s\u00a0recently,” Copper said with an eye roll.<\/p>\n

Thomas promptly interjected, stating Copper is the second-best UNO player on the team. “I’m the best on the team. When they can’t beat her, I come out and then I beat her and then I go back and do what I need to do.”<\/p>\n

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Thomas said she’s “super competitive” in everything she does, which started in her childhood.<\/p>\n

“I grew up in a super competitive family. Anything, board games to punch buggies we’re super competitive in,” she said, previously adding, “It started with my parents. As a kid. Any win that we had, whether it was Trouble or Candyland, we had to earn our win. So for me, when I would get a win against them, it was exciting.”<\/p>\n

The Mercury’s collective competitiveness can be seen in their never-say-die attitude. Phoenix overcame a 20-point deficit to win Game 2 of the WNBA semifinal series in overtime against the Minnesota Lynx and came back from a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit in Game 4 to clinch the series and advance to the WNBA Finals.<\/p>\n

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“This is what it’s all about. We played the whole season for playoffs and moments like this,” Thomas said after the Game 2 overtime win on Sept. 23. “It is definitely a moment that we will never forget. And for me, I want to win. I’ve been chasing the championship for a long time and yeah, I think this is our time.”<\/p>\n

Both Copper and Thomas are gearing up for their hardest battle yet against the Las Vegas Aces.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to be a hard fought battle and tough series,” Thomas said. “You don’t know what each game is going to bring, but the biggest thing is about us staying composed and sticking together.”<\/p>\n

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alyssa Thomas is owning the Mercury\u2019s UNO table ahead of WNBA Finals<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 Alyssa Thomas\u2019 competitiveness stretches far beyond the basketball court. Just ask Phoenix Mercury guard Kahleah…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[4652,49,48,12202,1483,3460,736,3461,82,93540,630,15457],"class_list":{"0":"post-186233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-alyssa-thomas","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-kahleah-copper","12":"tag-las-vegas","13":"tag-las-vegas-aces","14":"tag-minnesota-lynx","15":"tag-phoenix-mercury","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uno","18":"tag-wnba","19":"tag-wnba-finals"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}