PHOENIX (AP) \u2014 The Phoenix Mercury almost pulled off one of the biggest comebacks in WNBA Finals history on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Instead, they\u2019re staring at a 3-0 deficit in the best-of-seven series, awaiting injury news about star player Satou Sabally and will try to stave off elimination when they host the Las Vegas Aces in Game 4 on Friday.<\/p>\n
Las Vegas forward A\u2019ja Wilson made a turnaround jumper with 0.3 seconds remaining, capping a 34-point night and lifting the Aces over the Mercury 90-88 in Game 3. Wilson\u2019s winner came after the Mercury fought back from a 17-point deficit in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
Though proud of the comeback attempt, there\u2019s also the sobering reality that the Mercury are in a really big hole.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how many teams have come back from 0-3. Not many, right?\u201d coach Nate Tibbetts said. \u201cSo I\u2019m not going to sugarcoat that. We\u2019ve got a tough road ahead, but we\u2019ve got to take it one game at a time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis group has been a group that continues to compete at a high level. We\u2019re going to expect that in front of our fans. We\u2019ve got a certain level of pride.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Mercury certainly showed some pride on Wednesday, falling behind 21-8 in the first quarter after the Aces went on a 17-0 run. Phoenix responded with a 13-0 run of its own to tie the game \u2014 the opening act in a game that had big runs in each direction.<\/p>\n
By the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Aces looked like they had control with a 76-59 lead, but the Mercury closed the gap to 84-83 with 3:06 left on Kahleah Copper\u2019s 3-pointer. DeWanna Bonner tied the game at 86-all on a 3-pointer with 1:33 left and made two free throws with 1:01 left to tie it at 88.<\/p>\n
For a moment, it appeared the Mercury were about to pull off another stunning comeback. They came back from a 20-point deficit to beat the Minnesota Lynx in Game 2 of the semifinals and a 13-point deficit in Game 4.<\/p>\n
But Wilson is a four-time MVP for a reason. She took the entry pass in the final seconds and calmly made her turnaround jumper to bring the Aces within one win of their third championship in four seasons.<\/p>\n
Alyssa Thomas and Bonner were both pleased with the way the Mercury played in the fourth quarter, but also frustrated that they gave up 55 points in the first half that had them fighting from behind all night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like that\u2019s what we\u2019ve been doing all playoffs, fighting our way back,\u201d Bonner said. \u201cI\u2019m proud of the effort we had, but we can\u2019t start that way, especially against them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copper scored 11 of her 17 points in the fourth quarter. Bonner scored a team-high 25 points off the bench and Thomas was one assist short of a triple double, finishing with 14 points and 12 rebounds.<\/p>\n
Sabally had 24 points on 8-of-15 shooting, but it\u2019s unclear if she\u2019ll be available for Game 4. She left the game with 4:26 remaining in the fourth quarter after getting tangled with Aces guard Jackie Young and then falling into Kierstan Bell, hitting her head on the side of Bell\u2019s leg. <\/p>\n
Sabally stayed on the ground for several minutes before being helped off the court. Tibbetts said he didn\u2019t have any update on her injury after the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to keep fighting,\u201d Tibbetts said. \u201cThat\u2019s what this group is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/p>\n
David Brandt, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX (AP) \u2014 The Phoenix Mercury almost pulled off one of the biggest comebacks in WNBA Finals history…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-200001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200001","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=200001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}