{"id":688161,"date":"2026-06-06T15:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T15:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/688161\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T15:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T15:48:10","slug":"bonner-helps-the-short-handed-mercury-beat-the-fire-78-72","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/688161\/","title":{"rendered":"Bonner helps the short-handed Mercury beat the Fire 78-72"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/POSQAA6OOBHHZMT7SOB5JEXTVY.jpg\" alt=\"FILE - Phoenix Mercury forward DeWanna Bonner grabs a rebound against Japan during the first half of an exhibition basketball game, Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in Phoenix.\" class=\"width_full\" style=\"aspect-ratio:5363 \/ 3016;width:100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p>FILE &#8211; Phoenix Mercury forward DeWanna Bonner grabs a rebound against Japan during the first half of an exhibition basketball game, Wednesday, April 29, 2026, in Phoenix.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__image-by color_dgray f_s_xxs m-none\">Ross D. Franklin \/ AP<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">DeWanna Bonner scored a season-high 19 points, Natasha Mack added 16 points and the short-handed Phoenix Mercury beat the Portland Fire 78-72 on Friday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">Phoenix (4-8) was without usual starters Alyssa Thomas (left calf) and Kahleah Copper (left hip) due to injuries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">Bonner sank a 3-pointer from the corner with the shot clock winding down to give Phoenix a 64-62 lead. Jovana Nogic made the Mercury\u2019s final field goal with 2:46 remaining for a 68-67 lead and they never trailed again. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">Five Phoenix players combined to make 10 of 12 free throws in the final three minutes, with Bonner going 4 for 4. The Mercury finished 19 of 22 from the line. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">Noemie Brochant and Monique Akoa Makani each added 11 points for Phoenix. Nogic had a team-high six assists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">Sarah Ashlee Barker led Portland (6-6) with 15 points and seven rebounds. Karlie Samuelson made her first four 3-pointers and finished with 13 points. Teja Oblak added 11 points. The Fire were undone by 20 turnovers. <\/p>\n<p>Up next<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">Mercury: At Golen State on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">Fire: At Los Angeles on Sunday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">___<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-body__text article-body--padding color_dgray m-none\">AP WNBA: <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE &#8211; Phoenix Mercury forward DeWanna Bonner grabs a rebound against Japan during the first half of an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[298857,99,434],"class_list":["post-688161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-portland-sports-basketball-women","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688161","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=688161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}