Even with them clinching a playoff spot last week, the struggles continue to mount for the Phoenix Mercury as they have lost five of its last six games after suffering a 90-66 blowout loss to the Seattle Storm on Saturday.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Diana Taurasi scored 18 points and Kahleah Copper had 11 for Phoenix (17-19). No other player got double digits as the team’s offensive firepower did not show up in Seattle, summing up just how poor the team has been lately minus the postseason-clinching, 74-66 victory over the Atlanta Dream this past Tuesday.
Olympic gold medalist Jewell Loyd went for 20 points and Jordan Horston contributed with 16 off the bench in Seattle’s (21-14) victory. Former Mercury Skylar Diggins-Smith recorded a double-double with 12 points and 11 assists.
Mercury’s funk grows bigger and bigger
From being the No. 6 seed for the majority of the season to its recent skid and falling to No. 7, Phoenix had a chance to make up some ground on the Indiana Fever with a win over the Storm. The Fever surpassed the Mercury last week with them being 18-17.
Phoenix opened up the first quarter by going neck-and-neck with Seattle, with two 3-pointers scored by Sophie Cunningham. Despite Brittney Griner taking a knock to her leg, she came back and the end-to-end action from both teams saw the game tied 17-17 after the frame, a start the Mercury needed if they wanted any chance at beating one of the better teams in the WNBA.
When heading into the second quarter, however, the same issues that have plagued Phoenix over the past few games returned. Between miscommunication, turnovers and defensive miscues, the Storm went on a 26-11 run with 11 points from Horston.
The Mercury shot 10-for-31 (32.3%) from the field and 4-for-12 (33.3%) from three, were heavily outrebounded 28-17, outscored 28-13 in the second quarter and Cunningham ran into foul trouble with three in the first half.
“It’s nothing they [Seattle] did special, it was us,” Cunningham said about Phoenix’s issues lately. “Lack of discipline, its laziness. We got to look ourselves in the mirror… We’re not out of the question yet. I think we still are going to be able to win, we have enough talent that we can do that. At some point, it’s got to be enough. We got to buck up and change something.”
After a rough ending to her tenure as a Mercury, Diggins-Smith found a new home in Seattle and set a franchise record against her former team. The 5-foot-9 guard notched the 222nd assist of the season, which made her the single-season leader for the Storm in that stat.
Seattle was running away with the game from the second quarter onward and Phoenix was too far behind to catch up. The Mercury committed 13 turnovers, conceded 40 points in the paint and lost the rebound matchup 46-34.
“I thought the first quarter we played pretty well, the second quarter they got going and got a ton of confidence,” Tibbetts said. “They made all of our catches tough. We didn’t shoot it very well, we didn’t move it side-to-side. It was another tough night for us.”
Phoenix was 16-14 before a five-game home stand saw them go 1-4 and this game being added to the loss column as well.
While they are trying to search for answers as to why they haven’t been able to break out of the rut they are in, Tibbetts wants the team to come together and get back to playing a winning brand of basketball before the playoffs.
“We have been extremely poor, there’s no ducking that,” Tibbetts said. “We hold ourselves to a higher standard, and we’ve been bad. We have to make a decision and commit to one another to do the things that are needed to win basketball games. Winning is hard to do, and we are not doing hard things right now.”
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Reporter Alec Cipollini covers ASU Athletics, the Phoenix Mercury and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account, @AlecCipollini
