Phoenix Mercury hold on to beat Washington Mystics behind big third quarter
The Mercury, who were trailing at the time, went on a 15-0 run from 7:18 to 3:05 left in the third quarter to help seal Thursday's victory over Washington.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F394af818-1efd-444a-8499-9f32e7f95ff1_3277x4096.jpeg)
PHOENIX — It was another gutsy victory, but the Phoenix Mercury held on to beat the Washington Mystics 83-80 after pulling away in the third quarter.
Thursday’s win marked the third in a row for the Mercury who outscored the Mystics 27-16 in the third.
“We probably had more stretches tonight where we struggled, but we figured out a way again which is a sign of a good team,” Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said.
With the win, Phoenix improved to 3-1 on the season, its best start through four games since also going 3-1 in 2014, the last time the Mercury won a championship.
It was a back-and-forth first half, highlighted by the fact that neither team led by more than six points.
However, a technical foul called on Kahleah Copper may have sparked some energy into a Mercury team that looked flat at times coming off the emotional high of beating the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces in their building on Tuesday.
Copper was whistled for a technical foul after she believed she was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 9:17 left in the third. After converting the technical free throw, Washington took a 44-43 lead.
Copper then scored a bucket and the Mystics’ Shakira Austin made a pair of free throws to put the Mystics back up 46-45.
But the game changed after that when the Mercury went on a 15-0 run from 7:18 to 3:05 left in the third period.
The run began when Taurasi scored an and-one with 7:18 left in the third to give the Mercury a 48-46 lead.
But moments later Mercury fans collectively held their breath as there was another Kahleah Copper injury scare. Copper went to the locker room after she appeared to roll her ankle after landing on the foot of a Mystics defender.
However, Phoenix dodged a bullet for the second consecutive game as Copper was back on Phoenix's bench with 5:24 left in the third and checked back into the game with 5:12 left in the third.
The run continued when Taurasi drilled a 3-pointer with 6:35 left in the quarter and Mack hit a jumper with 6:07 left to put the Mercury’s run at 8-0 and Washington coach Eric Thibault called a full timeout.
After Natasha Cloud knocked down four free throws, she found Cunningham in the corner for a 3-pointer with 3:05 left in the third to extend the Mercury’s lead to 60-46, capping a 15-0 run and Thibault needed time again.
“I thought it was probably the best quarter of us sharing it,” Tibbetts said. “I thought that was part of the reason why we made a run, was because we got good looks because we were sharing it.”
The run ended with a 3-pointer from Washington’s Shatori Walker-Kimbrough with 2:49 left in the third out of the timeout.
Walker-Kimbrough then answered with a three-point play to trim the Mercury lead to 60-52.
Walker-Kimbrough answered again with a 21-footer, going on an individual 8-0 run to cut the Mercury led to six.
But Mercury forward Morgan Bertsch ended the Walker-Kimbrough run with a 3-pointer of her own.
The quarter was later capped off by Copper hitting a mid-range jumper to beat the buzzer which matched the Mercury’s largest lead at 14.
“It was kind of the first time we felt good about ourselves,” Tibbetts said about the run. “We were a little bit slow, just our decisions, we weren’t as crisp tonight, but these games are gonna keep coming at us and these are the nights that you need to try and figure out how to win a game when you’re not at your best and I thought tonight we figured it out and that 15-0 run was big.”
After a shaky start, it was also a near-flawless third quarter for the Mercury that resulted in zero turnovers.
The Mercury turned the ball over a league-best seven times in Tuesday’s win but had seven turnovers alone in the first quarter.
“Part of the reason we played such a good game in Vegas is we took care of it,” Tibbetts said about the turnovers. “We didn’t do a very good job tonight to start and we got better as the game went on but we have to be better than 17 turnovers.”
During the 15-0 run, Taurasi had six points of her own, including a deep three.
After shooting 4-of-15 from the field last Saturday and 3-of-13 from the field on Tuesday, Diana Taurasi shot 7-of-13 from the field in Thursday’s win.
“Yeah, obviously, I mean that was personally not my best game but we won and sometimes you have to just do other things to make sure your team gets over the line,” Taurasi said about Tuesday’s win. “And today was a little bit different with scoring a little bit more and rebounding. I still missed a free throw so there’s a lot of work to be done.”
The 10-time All-Star had 20 points, six rebounds and one assist in 29 minutes.
Taurasi had 10 points in the first half after having just nine in the game against the Aces on Tuesday. Tibbetts said he'd look to get Taurasi involved on ATOs (after time-outs) and early in the game. She had the first shot of the night and was targeted in the corner to start the second period.
“(Taurasi’s) gonna find a way,” Tibbetts said. “She’s a worker, she’s competitive, she loves the competition. She’s gonna miss some shots once in a while and you gotta believe the next time she steps up she’s gonna knock it down. It was a great bounceback game for her kinda getting her going, but I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about her offensively.”
The Mercury went 4-for-11 from behind the arc in the third quarter but shot 6-of-22 from deep combined in the other quarters. The 10-for-33 (30.3%) performance from deep was below where they’ve shot this season. The Mercury entered Thursday averaging 30.7 3-pointers attempted per game while shooting at a 40.2% clip.
What remained consistent was the Mercury looked to Kahleah Copper early and she delivered with 13 points in the first quarter on 4-of-6 shooting. But after she had 75 points combined in the past two games, Copper finished with 20 points on Thursday.
Thursday’s total brought her season average to 28.5 points per game. That’s still the highest total through the first four games of a season in Phoenix’s franchise history.
Outside of Copper, who started 4-of-6 from the field, the Mercury got off to a slow start by shooting a combined 1-of-6 from the field.
While Cloud had three assists in the first quarter, including a sweet alley-oop to Diana Taurasi, she didn’t really get going until her first bucket of the game, a driving layup with 5:31 left in the second. After the bucket, Cloud flexed her muscles, signifying how much this game meant to her.
“I'm just really thankful to be here in the Valley, truthfully, and to be doing it with this team, this organization,” Cloud said after Thursday’s win. “What I’ve been feeling a lot today has been gratitude. Gratitude for this next chapter of my career and to truly just be myself and be accepted for the dog that I am and be accepted for the passion that I have for the game and being accepted as the leader that I am. The fiery, crazy, type-crackhead leader that I am. I’m just very thankful to be here, so more than anything, I just feel the gratitude here in the Valley.”
Cloud finished with 14 points, 10 assists and five rebounds in 36 minutes. Tibbetts spoke about Cloud’s intensity and what this game meant for her before Thursday’s game.
“With the teams I’ve been fired by or been let go you always look forward to playing that team,” Tibbetts said. “So just knowing Cloud and her personality, she’s probably had this one circled on her schedule and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I just think it’s human nature, right? And so I’m sure she brings 10-out-of-10 energy every night and I wouldn’t expect it to be any less. I don’t know if you can get to 11 if you’re her, but it might be close.
Cloud played with 11-out-of-10 energy and aptly wore her heart on her sleeve. She talked a lot of trash to current Mystics point guard Julie Vanloo who is playing in her old role on her former team. Cloud was called for two, early reach-in fouls but finally got a takeaway and turned and flexed again.
“This meant a lot to me especially everyone that kind of knows what it is,” Cloud said. “I was let go in the offseason and I found a home here, but to give eight years to an organization and then to be fired on an off-day is kinda crazy, coming off a vacation too, so that was not fun. Dec. 13 was marked off on my calendar and before I played today’s game, I made sure to look back and look back at that date and feel all those feelings that I felt in that moment.”
The one low-point for the Mercury in the third quarter was when Sug Sutton suffered a left elbow injury and was ruled out for the rest of the game. In nine minutes, she was 0-of-3 from the field with two rebounds and three assists.
“I don’t (have an update on Sutton),” Tibbetts said after the game. “I think she got something with her elbow, maybe a hyper-extended elbow, I’m not sure, I haven’t heard. I think she wanted to come back but we were just being safe.”
After the near-perfect third quarter, Phoenix had just two points in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter.
But a Cloud layup and a couple of big Taurasi buckets down the stretch put the Mercury back up by double digits.
But the Mercury once again struggled to put the opposition away. After keeping Atlanta and Las Vegas in the game, the Mercury's lead was down to 80-77 with 34.1 seconds left.
Cloud then went 1-of-2 at the line but Mystics forward Karlie Samuelson missed a 3-pointer that would have made it a one-point game.
Cloud then came up big once again and knocked down a pair of free throws to put the Mercury back up by six with four seconds left.
Vanloo did make a 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left to make it 83-80 Mercury, but Phoenix held on during the final possession to seal the victory.
“I thought we had some slippage,” Tibbetts said about the fourth quarter. “There was a couple possessions where we didn’t communicate. Late in the game, there was a pick-and-roll where we switched it and we should have been in coverage and just little mental mistakes that are the difference in a game. And it’s early in the season, these are the times where you go back and watch the film and you figure it out. You can win just the same way you learn from losses.”
The Mercury are back in action on Saturday when they play against the Dallas Wings (1-2) at 7 p.m. The game can be watched on Arizona’s Family 3TV or streamed on Mercury Live.