The Phoenix Mercury (4-11) hosted the Las Vegas Aces (10-4) on Wednesday night\u00a0for a WNBA Commissioner\u2019s Cup game\u00a0at Mortgage Matchup Center.<\/p>\n
The Mercury were coming\u00a0off of\u00a0three straight losses, while the Aces had won six out of their last seven matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all want to win,\u201d Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts said. \u201cWe\u00a0haven\u2019t\u00a0done that at the level that we expected, and we just got to keep our\u00a0head\u00a0down and keep working.\u00a0There\u2019s\u00a0definitely\u00a0hope\u00a0for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Aces were the defending WNBA Champions,\u00a0having swept the Mercury in the WNBA Finals last year.<\/p>\n
Even then, the Aces were without Dana Evans (leg) and Chennedy Carter (Illness), while Jewell Loyd (illness) was on Game-Time Decision.<\/p>\n
On top of that,\u00a0Las Vegas was\u00a0led by A\u2019ja Wilson, a three-time WNBA champion and four-time WNBA MVP winner, who averaged\u00a025.6\u00a0points per game,\u00a09 rebounds per game, and 2.2\u00a0blocks per game.<\/p>\n
\u201cA\u2019ja (Wilson) is one of the elite players in our league,\u201d Tibbetts said. \u201cWe\u2019re\u00a0going to have to make it tough on her, she\u2019s (an) MVP candidate every year.\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0going to have to guard her one versus five and just make it tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Phoenix, Kahleah\u00a0Copper\u00a0was going to be a main factor for them, as she led the team with\u00a018.8 PPG.<\/p>\n
Phoenix still had other notable players, such as\u00a0Alyssa Thomas, who was averaging 8.1 APG, the second most in the WNBA.<\/p>\n
Despite being eliminated from making it to the final of the WNBA Commissioner\u2019s Cup, the Mercury had a chance to\u00a0eliminate\u00a0the Aces, as a loss for Las Vegas and a win from\u00a0either Minnesota or Dallas would see Las Vegas be eliminated.<\/p>\n
The two had also met previously for both teams\u2019 season\u00a0openers, in which the Mercury won 99-66.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a long time ago,\u201d Tibbetts said. \u201cI think just the excitement of a new season, game one, us playing there again after losing to the finals are things you can take. I just love how forceful we were. Those are the things\u00a0you want to continue to keep carrying over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the game began, Loyd was given the green light to play against Phoenix.<\/p>\n
The first four minutes were even between each team, but Copper was\u00a0already showing her\u00a0presence\u00a0for Phoenix, as she\u00a0scored eight points out of Phoenix\u2019s 10.<\/p>\n
Las\u00a0Vegas took a seven-point lead, but Mercury kept pushing, as they\u00a0made two threes\u00a0in\u00a0a\u00a0row, before taking a one-point lead,\u00a0leading to\u00a0an Aces timeout.<\/p>\n
Entering the second quarter, it was\u00a0a\u00a028-24 Mercury\u00a0lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a possession game,\u201d Tibbetts said. \u201c22 turnovers for 28 points or whatever it was,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0not good.\u00a0You\u2019re\u00a0not going to give yourself a realistic chance to win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite Copper scoring eight points, it was DeWanna Bonner with 10 points, leading the charge for Phoenix.<\/p>\n
Thomas had also racked up five assists in the game.<\/p>\n
As for the Aces, Wilson had eight points, as Jackie Young trailed her with seven points.<\/p>\n
NaLyssa Smith also grabbed six points, but the biggest factor was the bench and\u00a0three-point\u00a0shooting.<\/p>\n
The Mercury had 16 bench points, while the Aces only had two, and when shooting from three, Phoenix was 4-for-5\u00a0from three, while Las Vegas was 1-for-6 from deep.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe shot 43%\u00a0from\u00a0three,\u201d Tibbetts said. \u201cI\u2019d\u00a0say\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0probably one\u00a0of our better shooting nights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Entering the second half, the Mercury led 49-45, with\u00a0Copper\u00a0leading the way with 14 points, while Bonner trailed with 10 points.<\/p>\n
As for the Aces, Wilson had 18 points, and Jackie Young followed with 12 points.<\/p>\n
Outside of them, only Smith had more than one basket made.<\/p>\n
Las Vegas continued to struggle from beyond the arc, going just 2-for-10 from deep, and Mercury had 27 bench points compared to the\u00a0Aces\u00a0four.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really look at it as\u00a0(a)\u00a0bench,\u201d Jovana Nogic said. \u201cWhen\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0on the court,\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0five people on the court. You build that chemistry in practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite having the lead for most of the game, the Aces were up 68-64 entering the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we were just careless at times,\u201d Tibbetts said. \u201cWe\u2019ll\u00a0have to take a\u00a0look,\u00a0but you just\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0do that. It gets them out in transition and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0deflating in the turnovers, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copper was leading the way for the Mercury with 21 points, while Thomas had 11 assists and eight points, as she looked for her\u00a0double-double.<\/p>\n
As for the Aces, Wilson had 26 points, while Young trailed her with 20 points, alongside having seven assists.<\/p>\n
Despite starting strong, the Mercury went 1-for-7 from beyond the arc in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
With eight minutes to go, the game was tied at 69 a piece.<\/p>\n
With\u00a0just over\u00a0six minutes left, the Aces were able to take a 75-69 lead, and Thomas went down after she took a shot to the face, before getting back up and heading to the bench.<\/p>\n
With three minutes left, Phoenix was still down by five.<\/p>\n
In the end though, Vegas kept up the pace, winning 86-76.<\/p>\n
For the Mercury, Copper finished with 26 points, while\u00a0Nogic\u00a0finished with 12 points.<\/p>\n
Thomas got her double-double, with 10 points\u00a0and 11 assists.<\/p>\n
As for the Aces,\u00a0Smith\u00a0grabbed\u00a021 points, and Young trailed with 20 points.<\/p>\n
Even then,\u00a0Wilson\u00a0paved the way, as she finished with a double-double of 33 points and 11 rebounds.<\/p>\n
Las Vegas\u2019 win also confirmed their spot in the WNBA\u00a0Commissioner\u2019s\u00a0Cup final.<\/p>\n
The Mercury\u00a0fall\u00a0to 4-12 while the Aces\u00a0jump\u00a0to 11-4.<\/p>\n
The Mercury will welcome the Seattle Storm on Saturday noon at Mortgage Matchup Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Phoenix Mercury (4-11) hosted the Las Vegas Aces (10-4) on Wednesday night\u00a0for a WNBA Commissioner\u2019s Cup game\u00a0at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-711701","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\/711701","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=711701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}