{"id":200855,"date":"2025-10-04T04:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T04:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/200855\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T04:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T04:08:09","slug":"alyssa-thomas-misses-crucial-free-throws-as-phoenix-falls-to-las-vegas-in-game-1-of-wnba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/200855\/","title":{"rendered":"Alyssa Thomas misses crucial free throws as Phoenix falls to Las Vegas in Game 1 of WNBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Associated Press<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-a64fe1be=\"\">LAS VEGAS (AP) \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/wnba\/alyssa-thomas-player\" class=\"entity\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Alyssa Thomas<\/a> wouldn&#8217;t make excuses for missing two late free throws in Phoenix&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/wnba\" class=\"entity\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WNBA<\/a> Finals-opening loss to Las Vegas on Friday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-a64fe1be=\"\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/wnba\/phoenix-mercury-team\" class=\"entity\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Phoenix Mercury&#8217;s<\/a> leader had a chance to give her team the lead with 24 seconds left after an official review upheld a foul call on her drive to the basket. Thomas stepped calmly to the free-throw line with her team down 87-86, but missed both attempts as they clanged off the rim.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-a64fe1be=\"\">\u201cIt happens,\u201d Thomas told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-a64fe1be=\"\">The Mercury had one more chance at the end to tie it, but fell short, losing 89-86. Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Sunday in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-a64fe1be=\"\">\u201cThe series is not won or lost in the first game,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cSo yeah, we would like to have that win but we have plenty more games to play.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-a64fe1be=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxsports.com\/wnba\/kahleah-copper-player\" class=\"entity\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kahleah Copper<\/a> said that she wasn&#8217;t concerned about Thomas and wouldn&#8217;t need to say anything to her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-a64fe1be=\"\">\u201cNah, she&#8217;s good,\u201d Copper said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-a64fe1be=\"\">A few plays earlier, Thomas was grimacing and flexing her left hand. She said it was \u201cfine\u201d after the game. Coach Nate Tibbetts had said in his postgame press conference that he didn&#8217;t know the extent of the injury.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-a64fe1be=\"\">Playing through injuries is nothing new for Thomas. She has a history of dealing with severe pain, having played through torn labrums in both shoulders that she suffered nearly a decade ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-a64fe1be=\"\">Despite the missed shots, Thomas had a strong game with 15 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists, falling just short of recording the third triple-double in WNBA Finals history. Thomas has the other two.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-a64fe1be=\"\">___<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" use-external-image=\"true\" data-v-a64fe1be=\"\">AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/p>\n<p>\n        What did you think of this story?\n      <\/p>\n<p>\n        recommended\n      <\/p>\n<p> Arrow pointing to the leftArrow pointing to the right <\/p>\n<p>Item 1 of 1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) \u2014 Alyssa Thomas wouldn&#8217;t make excuses for missing two late free throws in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-200855","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\/200855","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=200855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}