This team really is on the cusp of something great, believe me. After being around them the past few days and seeing what they do to prepare for games on a daily/nightly/hourly basis, there is no doubt in my mind that if they can figure a way to correct or limit their weaknesses, there isn’t a team in the league that will catch them.

Unfortunately for the Mercury, tonight they simply beat themselves.

Though a close game throughout, the Silver Stars scored the final 8 points of the game in the last 2:43 to hand the Mercury their 3rd loss of the season, and 2nd in a row.

Game Summary

Phoenix again got off to somewhat of a slow start in the 1st quarter offensively making just 6 shots from the field. This wasn’t necessarily due to anything San Antonio was doing defensively, the Mercury just had one of those nights where only a couple players were able to find an early rhythm.  They also allowed 18 of San Antonio’s 19 first quarter points to be in the painted area with many open buckets.  Rebounding was fairly even after the 1st quarter (and throughout the entire game), hence, the concern wasn’t as much with rebounding the ball but with giving up so many easy baskets inside.

A lot of credit should definitely go to the Mercury coaching staff and their in-game adjustments to counteract San Antonio’s inside presence in the first half. At one point in the first quarter, the Silver Stars led the Mercury in points in the paint 18-6 and the margin increased to 26-12 at half. To reverse this, the Mercury really began to push the ball offensively which led to a 12-3 fastbreak point advantage after the 2nd quarter.  Phoenix also had the momentum going into halftime after Corey Gaines drew up a nice play to end the half with Meek dishing to Taurasi on a backdoor cut to put the Mercury up by 3.

The 3rd quarter looked a lot like the 2nd quarter with the Mercury beginning to really find a groove offensively and get to the foul line.  Much of this had to do with more of a focus on taking the ball inside to open up options along the perimeter when the defense collapsed. However, that plan was altered a bit for the Mercury when the Silver Stars didn’t collapse as much as they should; this led to 16 points in the paint for the Mercury in the 3rd and a 67-63 lead going into the 4th.

Phoenix was in control of the first 6 minutes of the 4th but never had that big “Mercury scoring run” we’ve been accustomed to in order to put San Antonio away.  Led by Becky Hammon’s 14 points in the quarter and 8 of Belinda Snell’s career high 21 points, the Silver Stars never let the Mercury’s lead become insurmountable and fought to stay within 1 point (83-84) with 4:09 left in the game.

Late Game Turnovers

That’s when things went South for Phoenix.

The Mercury only scored 3 more points in the game while the Silver Stars scored 8 to seal the win.  During those 4 minutes, Phoenix missed 6 shots and turned the ball over 3 times for a total of 7 in the quarter. “It was those 7 turnovers in the 4th quarter,” Gaines said after the game. “And those offensive rebounds they got, maybe like four or five in the last two minutes, that gave them a second shot.”

What typically has plagued the Mercury (rebounding and 2nd chance points) weren’t deciding factors in tonight’s loss.  San Antonio only out-rebounded the Mercury by 2 (33-31) and had just 3 more 2nd chance points (10-7).  Phoenix also was effective in running the break with 22 fast-break points to the Silver Stars 11.

This just goes to show how important it is to take care of the ball late in games and to execute.

Team Notes

Belinda Snell came off the bench to score 21 points on 7/11 shooting to go along with her 4 steals and 4 rebounds. “She lit us up,” Cappie Pondexter said about Snell’s performance.  Becky Hammon had 14 of her 19 points in the 4th quarter and Ruth Riley added 16 points for the Silver Stars.

Diana Taurasi had 10 of her 22 points in the first quarter and added a team-high 8 rebounds.  Cappie Pondexter had a season-high 26 points and 6 rebounds. The only other Mercury player in double-digits was Le’coe Willingham with 11 (7 of which were from the foul line). Meek had 8 points and 5 assists and a couple of important jump shots late in the game.  Tangela had a difficult shooting night hitting on only 3 of her 13 attempts.

DeWanna Bonner had a difficult night and maybe her toughest game as a rookie playing only 19 minutes without hitting a field goal. Kelly Mazzante, however, sparked the Mercury bench with three 3’s in her 14 minutes of action while Ketia Swanier kept Hammon in check defensively in her 8 minutes.  In her 2nd game back, Nicole Ohlde looked much more comfortable, both offensively and defensively, grabbing 4 rebounds and scoring 2 points in just 8 minutes.

Onto the next one…

The Mercury leave for Washington D.C. tomorrow to take on the Mystics Thursday night, then head to Minnesota to play the Lynx on Saturday.  This team hasn’t really had a day off in a long while and won’t get another one until after their game against Minnesota; they’ll have 3 days “off” before playing Seattle at home (for revenge) on July 1st.