{"id":313245,"date":"2025-11-25T18:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T18:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/313245\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T18:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T18:30:08","slug":"why-the-mercurys-big-games-helped-them-make-the-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/313245\/","title":{"rendered":"Why The Mercury&#8217;s Big Games Helped Them Make The Playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_67d24y05g\">The Phoenix Mercury were coming off a bad year, and they needed to get back on track. The 2024 season was a chance to do that, and after making a few moves, they reached the playoffs. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_lpiu49mjt\">The Mercury had some nice performances that season, and their new addition, <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_k0tslj\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/wnba\/mercury\/phoenix-kahleah-copper-represents-win-gold-medal-with-team-usa\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kahleah Copper<\/a>, played a big role in most of their games. Phoenix had some high-scoring performances that year, and the biggest was against the Dallas Wings. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_kcms8odqb\">Phoenix beat Dallas 104-96 in that game, and Copper had one of her best games. She had 34 points, a rebound and an assist. <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_k0tslj\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/wnba\/mercury\/why-phoenix-centers-slowed-down-teams\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brittney Griner<\/a> was the second-leading scorer, as she had 24 points, eight rebounds, three steals, two blocks and an assist. <\/p>\n<p><img class=\"base_1emrqjj-o_O-initial_fzbddc-o_O-style_1a1csmw\" alt=\"Phoenix Mercur\" title=\"Phoenix Mercur\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Mercury guard Natasha Cloud warms up prior to a game against the Sparks at the Footprint Center in Phoenix on June 28, 2024. \/ Patrick Breen\/The Republic \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_orhibu20i\">Diana Taurasi had 16 points, five rebounds and four assists. Rebecca Allen played well, as she had 14 points, three rebounds and a block. Then, Natasha Cloud had a double-double of 11 points and 10 assists. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_8x0akkfpt\">The Mercury&#8217;s next-best game was against a familiar face. They beat the Wings 100-84, and Copper had another big game. She had 32 points this time around, and she also had five rebounds and four assists. <\/p>\n<p><img class=\"base_1emrqjj-o_O-initial_fzbddc-o_O-style_1a1csmw\" alt=\"Diana Tauras\" title=\"Diana Tauras\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi (3) fights with Seattle Storm forwards Nneka Ogwumike (3) for the ball on Sept. 19, 2024 at Footprint Center in Phoenix. \/ Owen Ziliak\/The Republic \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_m52wxwgfi\">Griner was next in line, and she had 23 points, four rebounds, three steals and two blocks. Cloud had 14 points, six assists, three rebounds and a steal. Mikiah Herbert Harrigan had 12 points, two rebounds, two steals, two blocks and an assist. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_r8ho6pbee\">Phoenix&#8217;s wins over Dallas were the games where the team scored 100 or more points. The Mercury came close a few times, and most of them were wins. They beat the New York Liberty 99-93, and they had six players who scored at least 10 points. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_yl9rdovsr\">Griner and Taurasi both had 19 points, Allen and Copper finished with 17 points each, Sophie Cunningham had 13 and Cloud had 11. <\/p>\n<p><img class=\"base_1emrqjj-o_O-initial_fzbddc-o_O-style_1a1csmw\" alt=\"Kahleah Coppe\" title=\"Kahleah Coppe\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Phoenix Mercury guard Kahleah Copper (2) warms up in a Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi (3) jersey on Sept. 19, 2024 at Footprint Center in Phoenix. \/ Owen Ziliak\/The Republic \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_gc6jfggfg\">The Mercury scored 98 in <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_k0tslj\" href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/wnba\/mercury\/wnba.com\/game\/1022400018\/boxscore?_gl=1*1l4d893*_ga*MTI2MjI0MDA0Mi4xNzU1NzM1NTk0*_ga_EBT4XD6XTT*czE3NjQwNDE3MjkkbzIxNiRnMSR0MTc2NDA0Mjg3MSRqNDkkbDAkaDA.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a win over the Las Vegas Aces<\/a>. The Mercury&#8217;s new star had 37 points in that game, and she also had four rebounds, three assists, three steals and a block. Sug Sutton had 12 points, a rebound, a steal and a block. Cloud had a double-double of 11 points and 10 assists.  She was three rebounds shy of a triple-double. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_9i5xxe0pg\">Phoenix had some strong performances, and players like Copper and Cloud contributed. <\/p>\n<p class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_mxvz7o-o_O-style_12bse5w-o_O-style_6s3kpz\" data-mm-id=\"_auvcfxjzz\">Please follow us on X to read more about the Mercury&#8217;s 2024 season and their top performances when you click right <a class=\"tagStyle_16dbupz-o_O-style_k0tslj\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MercuryOnSI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Phoenix Mercury were coming off a bad year, and they needed to get back on track. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-313245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313245","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=313245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}