Mercury make 17-point comeback before A'ja Wilson game-winner pushes Phoenix to brink
The Phoenix Mercury rallied from a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit to tie the game in the final two minutes before A'ja Wilson hit a game-winner to give the Aces a 3-0 series lead.
PHOENIX — The Phoenix Mercury made a 17-point fourth-quarter comeback but A’ja Wilson’s game-winning fadeaway jumper with 0.3 seconds left lifted the Aces to a 90-88 win in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals.
Aces coach Becky Hammon said she did not draw up a special play for Wilson as the score was tied at 88 with five seconds remaining, and said the play she called was “very basic.”
“Give the ball to (Wilson) and get out of the way. That’s all the play was,” Hammon said.
“Yeah, I feel like in that moment if a coach has to tell me what to do, I’m not doing my job. She just drew up a play. It wasn’t really even a play,” Wilson said.
Wilson finished with a game-high 34 points on 11-for-20 (55%) shooting, the most she’s scored in a Finals game in her career. She added 14 rebounds, four assists and three blocks.
It was also Wilson’s ninth 30+ point game of her WNBA postseason career, the most of all-time.
“I’m appreciative that (Hammon) trusts me in those moments. But those are playoff basketball moments,” Wilson said. “Those are moments you live for. So I’m glad I was able show up. So I’m glad that I was able to come to work.”
Las Vegas led 76-59 entering the fourth quarter before Phoenix tied the game at 86 with a DeWanna Bonner 3-pointer with 1:41 left.
“We’re not into moral victories. This is a game that we wanted to get, needed to get. But for us to compete the way that we did I think just shows the character of our team,” Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said. “It’s the way we’ve fought all year.
“Put ourselves in a position to win against a really good team. Yeah, I’m proud of our group for not giving in, and that’s what we expect on Friday, too. We’re going to keep fighting. That’s what this group is about.”
After the Aces reclaimed the lead through a Chelsea Gray and-one opportunity (Gray missed the free throw), Bonner made two free throws with 61 seconds left to tie the score again.
Wilson then uncharacteristically had a turnover with 40 seconds left, as she bobbled a pass from Jackie Young.
“My biggest thing was just, ‘I have to get it back.’ I said, ‘I don’t know, it may not necessarily be me to get it back,’ but I knew either it was going to be on the defensive end or something. I had to get that one back because that would have crushed my whole soul to know that because that’s just something I don’t do,” Wilson said.
“But when I saw the (final) play was for me, I was like, (Hammon) trusts me, so I’ve got to make something happen.”
Alyssa Thomas then missed a tough, driving layup with 19 seconds left as Megan Gustafson tightly defended Thomas.
After Wilson’s would-be game-winner, the Mercury had one final chance, but Bonner’s catch-and-shoot prayer with 0.3 seconds left rimmed off, as Vegas took a 3-0 series lead.
How were the Mercury able to make their 17-point comeback?
The Mercury were largely able to make their comeback through their defense and through the play of Bonner and Kahleah Copper in the fourth quarter.
Phoenix’s defense was lackluster in the first half before upping the intensity in the second half.
“It’s how we should be playing from the start. It took us too long to wake up and play defense,” Thomas said.
“I think the second half is our basketball and how we play. Shame on us for not coming out the way that we needed to come out.”
Phoenix held Las Vegas to 21 points in the third and just 14 points in the fourth quarter after surrendering 55 points in the first half, the most Phoenix has given up in a half this postseason.
“I thought the second half, obviously, was our best defensive half of the series,” Tibbetts said. “I thought in the first half, we had some really good defensive possessions, but we just didn’t finish them with the rebound. We talked about second-chance points. I liked our focus coming out defensively, but there was a couple loose balls they picked up, hit some 3s.
“It looked like a lot more of the defense that we’ve been playing all year.”
The Mercury also got the Aces into foul trouble during the fourth quarter, with Dana Evans fouling out and NaLyssa Smith picking up her fifth, resulting in Hammon going to Kierstan Bell and Gustafson, whom the Mercury offense hunted.
Battling an illness, Bonner bounced back in a big way in Game 3, finishing with a season-high 25 points on 7-for-11 (63.6%) shooting and 10 rebounds. Bonner went a combined 5-for-18 (27.8%) from the field in the first two games.
“I don’t necessarily know if it was the Vegas defense. It was just me personally. I just knew Game 3 I needed to be more aggressive,” Bonner said on what allowed her to get to the rim.
“I feel like the first two games in Vegas I was a little hesitant. I already had the mindset that I was going to come in and attack the paint today regardless. Just trying to be aggressive, just trying to get some points on the board for my team and do whatever I can on defense, defending (Wilson), trying to make it tough, but she’s the MVP for a reason.”
Before Game 3, Tibbetts said the Mercury would look to get Copper involved early but she did not have a spot attempt until the 3:32 mark in the first quarter.
Copper struggled out of the gate and had just four points on five shots in the first half, as the Aces defended Copper in a semi zone or a “box-and-one” according to Tibbetts.
“The great thing about (Copper), she just keeps playing,” Tibbetts said. “She’s had some good first halves against them, and they’ve done a better job of guarding her in the second half. Obviously they did a good job in the first half tonight, but she got it going in the fourth. We’re going to need that from her moving forward.”
Copper scored 11 of her 17 points in the fourth quarter, which included an individual 9-0 run.
The Aces also went away from giving the ball to Wilson down the stretch, a recipe that had been successful for them for the entirety of the game.
Wilson went more than four and a half minutes without taking a shot before her game-winner.
Unlike in the first two games of the series, the Mercury moved Thomas off of Wilson and opted to deploy Natasha Mack on the four-time MVP to begin the game. Thomas initially drew Gray as a defensive assignment.
Mack struggled to defend Wilson, and as a result did not see any playing time in the second half. Bonner and Thomas were then moved onto Wilson.
Mercury struggle to defend without fouling
Overall, the Mercury struggled to defend without getting called for fouls.
The Aces shot 23-for-25 (92%) at the line, as Wilson went 11-for-12 (91.67%) individually. The 25 free throws Phoenix allowed is the second-most they have allowed in 10 postseason games this year, only one fewer than the 26 New York shot in Game 3 of the first round.
Many of the Aces’ free throws came in the third quarter, which helped them build their 17-point lead. Las Vegas shot 13-for-14 (92.9%) at the line in the third quarter, and Wilson went 5-for-6 (83.3%) at the line for 11 points in the third.
“We’re a competitive group. We’re physical. I’ve felt like (Thomas) has gotten downhill and gotten to the paint quite a few times and not gotten rewarded,” Tibbetts said about the officiating. “But unfortunately this is what it is. You’ve just got to keep battling. You’d love to have consistency. But it’s not always the case.”
The Mercury shot 31 free throws, tying their season-high, but converted just 23 of them. The 74.2% Phoenix shot at the line was its second-worst mark of the postseason.
“I mean, obviously free throws are important,” Tibbetts said. “We did a great job of getting to the line. Typically we’re a pretty good free-throw shooting team, so I have confidence that our group will step up and knock them down.”
Aces open with 3-point barrage as Mercury don’t defend perimeter in first half
As the Mercury looked to take away the paint early (the Aces had just 10 points in the paint in the first half), the Mercury struggled to defend the perimeter and left the Aces wide open from behind the 3-point arc on a number of occasions.
“It was just about talking. You’ve got to communicate out there. I think in transition that’s where they’ve been hurting us is just getting open 3s,”Thomas said. “We’ve got to continue to be better. I think the second half we put out a better effort. We held them to lower averages, but still not good enough.”
The Aces shot 9-for-16 (56.2%) from 3 in the first half, and seven of the Aces’ 3-pointers were uncontested.
Jewell Loyd hit four of her five 3-point attempts in the first quarter, becoming the first player in WNBA Finals history to make four 3-pointers in the first quarter.
Loyd finished with 16 points and seven rebounds. Young added 21 points on 7-for-18 (38.9%) shooting but went just 1-for-7 (14.3%) from 3.
Many of the Aces’ looks from 3 in the first half came as a result of moving the ball and playing to the second side.
Las Vegas had 17 assists in the first half, which was only the fifth time a team has had that many assists in a half in WNBA Finals history and just the second in Aces history.
Phoenix did a much better job defending the perimeter in the second half, as Las Vegas shot 0-for-8 (0%) from 3.
On the other end, the Mercury struggled and shied away from taking 3s during the first three quarters. Phoenix started 3-for-15 (20%) from 3 before going 4-for-6 (66.7%) from 3 in the fourth quarter.
As the Mercury’s 3-point shooting woes continued, Phoenix found success scoring inside, tallying 40 points in the paint.
“I thought tonight we did throw it in the post a little bit more and it created a problem for them,” Tibbetts said.
Satou Sabally exits Game 3 with head injury
Sabally took an inadvertent knee from Bell to the head and was knocked to the floor with 4:26 left. She remained on the floor for a considerable amount of time and had to be helped to the locker room.
She did not return to the game and Tibbetts said she was not in the locker room when he went in and talked immediately after the game.
Sabally finished with 24 points on 8-for-15 (53.3%) shooting in 32 minutes. She was much more efficient in Game 3 than the first two games of the series and did a good job of getting to the rim, instead of taking contested 3s early in the shot clock. She had 13 points on 5-for-7 (71.4%) shooting in the first quarter before the Mercury puzzlingly went away from her.
She had just two shot attempts in the second quarter and three in the third quarter.
Needing to win to extend the series, the Mercury will host the Aces for Game 4 on Friday at 5 p.m. MST. The game can be watched on ESPN.
I don’t even know what to say so kudos to you for being able to find the words to describe this terrible loss. If I am being honest, I shouldn’t be surprised because the coach has not been able to come up with an effective game plan vs the Aces all season. To say Becky has out-coached Nate is an understatement. This also exposed why sticking with an 8 person rotation is too risky and unnecessary. The 8 players look gassed and now one is injured, so what do we do now with the season on the line? Run 7 players into the ground or insert someone who hasn’t played at all in the playoffs? This is such a sad ending to a really successful regular season and IMO this is on the coach.