{"id":189290,"date":"2025-09-29T07:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T07:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/189290\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T07:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T07:15:07","slug":"mercury-stun-top-seeded-lynx-with-furious-rally-to-crash-wnba-finals-wnba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/189290\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercury stun top-seeded Lynx with furious rally to crash WNBA finals | WNBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alyssa Thomas had 23 points and 10 assists, Satou Sabally scored 21 points and the host Phoenix Mercury<\/a> advanced to the WNBA Finals with an 86-81 comeback victory over the game but crippled Minnesota Lynx in Game 4 of their semifinal series Sunday night.<\/p>\n

DeWanna Bonner had 11 of her 13 points and all three of her 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, when the Mercury outscored the Lynx 31-13 to overcome a 68-55 deficit and advance to the finals for the first time since falling to the Chicago Sky in 2021.<\/p>\n

The Lynx played without star center Napheesa Collier, who suffered a left ankle injury in the final seconds of the Mercury\u2019s 84-76 victory in Game 3 on Friday and watched the game from the bench in a walking boot.<\/p>\n

Minnesota\u2019s Kayla McBride had 14 of her playoff career-high 31 points when the Lynx took the upper hand in the third quarter but could not hold on. Courtney Williams had 20 points and Jessica Shepard had career playoff-high 14 points while starting for Collier.<\/p>\n

The finals are to begin Friday, with the first two games at the site of the higher seed. The fourth-seeded Mercury knocked off the top-seeded Lynx in their best-of-five series. The second-seeded Las Vegas Aces and the sixth-seeded Indiana Fever meet in Game 5 of their series Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The WNBA<\/a> finals will be a best-of-seven for the first time in league history. Phoenix last won a championship in 2014.<\/p>\n

The Mercury scored 19 of the first 21 points in the fourth period, and the second of Bonner\u2019s two three-pointers gave them a 72-70 lead with 3:39 remaining.<\/p>\n

McBride and Bonner traded 3-pointers as the Mercury stayed ahead 77-73. McBride\u2019s sixth three made it 77-76 with 1:04 remaining but Bonner followed with two free throws for a 79-76 lead with 42 seconds left.<\/p>\n

After a McBride miss, Thomas made a driving layup for an 81-76 lead with 27 seconds left. The Lynx later got within three on Natasha Hiedeman\u2019s thee-pointer with 5.2 seconds remaining before Kahleah Copper closed the scoring with two free throws.<\/p>\n

Associate head coach Eric Thibault coached the Lynx while head coach Cheryl Reeve served a one-game suspension<\/a> for her conduct and comments toward the officials during and after Game 3.<\/p>\n

Thomas was two rebounds short of her second playoff triple-double.<\/p>\n

The Mercury had outscored 21-9 in the fourth quarter of the Game 3.<\/p>\n

The Mercury trailed by 14 in the first quarter, drew even at 38 at halftime and did not lead until Copper\u2019s 3-pointer on their first possession of the second half.<\/p>\n

The Lynx put together another spurt including two threes from McBride for 55-45 lead midway through the third.<\/p>\n

Sabally had 24, 23 and 21 points in the final three games of the series, all Mercury wins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alyssa Thomas had 23 points and 10 assists, Satou Sabally scored 21 points and the host Phoenix Mercury…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-189290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}