Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas<\/a>.<\/p>\n“It’s always fun competing against [Alyssa Thomas],” Wilson said. “She can facilitate the game. She can pick the game apart, and I don’t get to guard that every single day … I try my best to make things very difficult. The way that she sees the game, her vision, the way that she gets her teammates open \u2015 it’s something that she adds and brings to this game and to that position.<\/p>\n
“I don’t see [that] every single night. It helps me elevate … to another level every single game.”<\/p>\n
Wilson was adamant the Aces would play their best basketball on the WNBA’s biggest stage and give fans “a good Finals matchup.” When Thomas and Mercury guard Kahleah Copper arrived later in the hour for Phoenix’s press conference, they brought the same laser-focused energy with the singular mission to win a championship.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Previewing the WNBA Finals<\/p>\n
Sam Cardona-Norberg, Meghan Hall, and Cydney Henderson react to the unexpected Aces vs Mercury WNBA Finals matchup and its legacy implications.<\/p>\n
Sports Seriously<\/p>\n
Thomas revealed she told her team in training camp they were going to the Finals. She said she never wavered on that declaration. Copper said she texted head coach Nate Tibbetts multiple times throughout the season with a simple three-word message: “I like us.”<\/p>\n
The Phoenix veteran explained despite having several players who hadn’t played in the WNBA before this season or not getting as many minutes as they previously were, the team was able to fight through early injuries and adversity all the way to the playoffs. It’s that kind of resolve that Copper says led the Mercury to fully lean into an underdog narrative.<\/p>\n
“Everyone on our roster has been underrated or not talked about or whatever. At this point, I’m a psycho, looking for something,” Copper jokingly admitted. “We know it comes with the game, but we really don’t care. Give us an edge. Like I said, don’t pick us. It’s cool … but I’m just wired a little different, you know?”<\/p>\n
Copper, Thomas, Wilson and Gray are some of the fiercest competitors in the league and will always bring their best when the pressure is the highest. Still, it’s hard to know who will walk away with a ring in a best-of-seven series. One thing is very clear: the 2025 WNBA Finals will be the highest form of competitive basketball if the Mercury and Aces have anything to say about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aces and Mercury weaknesses going into the WNBA Finals Sam Cardona-Norberg, Meghan Hall, and Cydney Henderson break down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[8446,4662,10228,26676,4652,461,49,48,562,12199,8520,27796,37642,63448,60498,4661,28671,12202,1458,3460,8521,8456,2598,736,8519,729,44,1333,1345,8455,3461,36547,1334,82,865,25542,1459,8447,630,15457,26214,4134,4143,23057],"class_list":["post-186908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-aja","tag-aja-wilson","tag-aces","tag-alyssa","tag-alyssa-thomas","tag-basketball","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chelsea","tag-chelsea-gray","tag-collier","tag-copper","tag-finals","tag-gray","tag-jackie","tag-jackie-young","tag-kahleah","tag-kahleah-copper","tag-las","tag-las-vegas-aces","tag-lynx","tag-mercury","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-lynx","tag-napheesa","tag-napheesa-collier","tag-news","tag-overall","tag-overall-positive","tag-phoenix","tag-phoenix-mercury","tag-playoffs","tag-positive","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-thomas","tag-vegas","tag-wilson","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-finals","tag-wnba-playoffs","tag-womens","tag-womens-sports","tag-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186908","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=186908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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