Phoenix Mercury beat Las Vegas Aces behind depth, Sami Whitcomb's shooting
Sami Whitcomb scored a season-high 18 points, as the Mercury had twice as many bench points as the Aces (28 to 14) in Sunday's win.
LAS VEGAS — As the Phoenix Mercury returned to nearly full-strength on Sunday, they defeated the Las Vegas Aces, 76-70 behind their depth and Sami Whitcomb’s shooting.
The win moved the Mercury to 8-4 on the season, and once again Phoenix was able to win another close game. The Mercury are now 5-1 in games decided by 4-9 points, while improving to 7-1 in games when tied/leading going into the fourth quarter.
Sunday marked the third loss in a row for the Aces (5-5), who are off to their worst start since 2018, the franchise’s first season in Las Vegas.
Mercury wing Kahleah Copper made her season debut after missing the first 11 games of the year with a left knee injury, which offered a small glimpse of what the Mercury will look like moving forward.
The Mercury played their pacy, position-less basketball at times, which saw Alyssa Thomas, Satou Sabally and Copper on the floor for the first time together, but Sunday’s game demonstrated there are still kinks to work out offensively.
The Mercury started 1-for-9 (11.1%) from the field while they looked to push the tempo early.
Copper was held without a field goal in the first half (0-for-3), but finished with 11 points (on 4-for-9 shooting).
“I thought we looked good. I mean it's going to take a minute,” Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said.
Despite starting, Copper was on a minutes restriction and played 17:41, coming in and out during four-minute stretches.
“I thought she was more aggressive in the second half, obviously,” Tibbetts said. “I mean it's going to take a little bit of time, and I was happy with how she played in the second half.”
A trend this season, Sunday’s game saw more streaky shooting from the Mercury.
Phoenix shot 1-for-10 (10%) from 3 in the first quarter, and followed that up by then going 7-for-12 (58.3%) from deep, a run that saw Sabally score 14 of her 22 points in the second quarter, where she connected on 3 of 4 3s in the period.
But the Mercury then missed nine of their final 10 3s to close the game.
“You're going to make and miss shots. We didn't shoot it great from 3 tonight. I thought we had some really good looks,” Tibbetts said.
“And so when your shots not going down just being able to rely on your defense … but I thought we competed at the defensive end tonight.”
While Copper’s return and the emergence of Phoenix’s new Big 3 was celebrated, Sami Whitcomb proved to be the key difference and the reason why the Mercury were able to put the Aces away.
Whitcomb, a career 35.6% shooter from 3, was shooting a career-low 24.5% from deep entering the game at Las Vegas.
However, Sunday saw Whitcomb return to form, where she scored a season-high 18 points and went 7-for-14 (50%) from the field and 4-for-8 (50%) from 3.
“It is obviously nice to make shots and to feel like you're doing the thing that you're kind of supposed to do out there,” Whitcomb said.
Whitcomb had 18 of the Mercury’s 28 bench points as the Mercury showed they are a much deeper team than the Aces.
“It's just a whole another thing when you go on the road and that's why you got to have veterans like (Whitcomb),” Tibbetts said.
“(Whitcomb) hasn't shot it great from 3 this year. She'd be the first to tell you, but we all believe in her. Every time she shoots it I think it's going in and she came in and really just changed the game … We needed all of (Whitcomb’s) 18 points tonight to get that win.”
Whitcomb also had seven of her 18 points in the final 6:41, as her play and Thomas’ down the stretch helped the Mercury seal the victory.
Thomas also had six of her 14 points in the final period and assisted on two of Whitcomb’s clutch buckets. Thomas finished with 13 assists, her third double-double in a row.
After Jewell Loyd hit a 3 with 1:37 remaining to cut the Mercury’s once 11-point lead down to three, Whitcomb responded with a 3 on the other end (assisted by Thomas). It was Whitcomb’s fourth triple and it crucially put the Mercury back up six with 1:25 to play.
The 3 also tied Whitcomb with Kara Lawson for the most games in WNBA history with at least four 3-pointers made off the bench.
“Coming here this season, I didn't know if she was going to start or come off the bench, but having that spark plug off the bench is huge,” Tibbetts said.
“She looked super comfortable tonight. I mean, those points are huge and this is not a new role for her. This is something that she has done throughout her career at different points. But (Whitcomb) made some big, big plays down the stretch.”
The Aces were without league MVP A’ja Wilson for the second straight game due to a concussion Wilson suffered on Wednesday.
But the Aces were already a team lacking depth and Sunday’s game showed Wilson’s injury only played a part in that.
The Aces did not have any bench points (and only four Aces had scored) until Kierstan Bell made a 3 with 3:12 left in the third quarter.
After three quarters, the Mercury led the bench battle, 21-3.
“I mean, there's absolute trust in every single one in our team. Even if you don't play, you bring energy,” Sabally said.
“If you're on the bench like it's just substitution. It doesn't matter who starts. It doesn't matter who comes from the bench. We're a consistent team, and I think the final box score will always show that we're really able to have everyone score ... so there's a lot of trust throughout all players.”
A brief spark from Bell, Dana Evans and Aaliyah Nye saw the Aces score 11 bench points in the first 4:35 of the fourth, but the Mercury finished with twice as many bench points as the Aces (28 to 14).
Even with the Mercury’s shooting woes on Sunday, which saw them shoot 28-for-73 (38.4%) from the field and 9-for-32 (28.1%) from 3, the Mercury did a much better job than the Aces at moving the basketball.
Phoenix had 22 assists to Las Vegas’ 14 on Sunday, and the Aces continue to sit last in the league at 15.9 per game.
The Aces’ stagnant offense has been their detriment the entire season and that trend continued into Sunday. Las Vegas played a ton of iso-ball and settled for unassisted twos, resulting in an offense that was very one-dimensional.
Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray and Loyd accounted for 52 of Las Vegas’ 70 points.
Young was giving the Mercury a lot of problems in the first half, but the Mercury stepped up their defense on her down the stretch.
Young had 15 points (on 4-for-11 shooting) in the first half and zero points (on 0-for-3 shooting) in the second half.
(Young’s) one of those players coming into this game with (Wilson) out. We knew that we were going to have to be super competitive on her,” Tibbetts said.
“She's a player that can get it going ... so for us to hold her to three shots in the second half and be super aggressive. It's not only the guards that are guarding her. I thought our bigs did a really good job of being up and being super competitive in the pick-and-roll and that's so important.”
The Mercury’s four-game roadtrip will continue in Connecticut as they play the Sun (2-8) on Wednesday at 4 p.m. MST. The game can be watched on Arizona’s Family Sports.