Phoenix Mercury show signs of rust in preseason loss to Golden State Valkyries

The Mercury had 20 turnovers in Sunday's 84-79 preseason loss to the Valkyries.

Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas finished with 15 points, five rebounds and six assists in Sunday’s loss to the Golden State Valkyries. (Phoenix Mercury photo)

PHOENIX — The Phoenix Mercury showed flashes of brilliance, but a theme of sloppiness swept over the Mercury in Sunday’s 84-79 preseason loss to the Golden State Valkyries.

The loss drops the Mercury to 0-2 during the preseason.

Following Tuesday’s 21-turnover output, the Mercury had 20 turnovers on Sunday and blew a 15-point lead in the third quarter.

“I would say after two games, it's concerning,” Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said about the turnovers. “I think part of it is just us, we got to play against a different defense and it's going to take a little bit of time.

“But yeah, too many turnovers once again. We'll watch the film tomorrow and make some corrections.”

Without Kahleah Copper (back), Monique Akoa Makani (knee) and Lexi Held (hamstring tightness) available, the Mercury started Satou Sabally, Alyssa Thomas, Natasha Mack, Sami Whitcomb and Sevgi Uzun.

Uzun started the game in a traditional point guard role with Akoa Makani’s absence, but other players also brought the ball up the floor as the Mercury looked to push the tempo once again.

At times the Mercury showed flashes of their true potential on Sunday, but mistakes cost them the game.

One of those glimpses of successes was when Thomas took the ball the full length of the court to score a layup for the first Mercury points.

In addition, Mack’s ability to run up and down the floor proved exactly why she is starting.

Thomas finished with 15 points (on 5-for-9 shooting), five rebounds, six assists and two turnovers on Sunday.

Mack added 12 points, seven rebounds, an assist and two blocks and is continuing to show a lot more confidence this season.

“Yeah, a lot of that comes with conditioning and my teammates believing in me and trusting me, because it's no longer my first year,” Mack said. “So, I'm kind of still trying to figure it out, but I have a little bit more confidence because I got great teammates and the support, the advice and all that, I take it to the heart.”

Sabally showed her worth as well — with 15 points, six rebounds, three assists and a block.

She also shot 4-for-6 from deep, but the rest of the Mercury combined to go 4-for-21.

“Obviously, I worked on it a lot in the off season, but it also helps having players on the floor that really spread the floor out, so I have the space to take those shots,” Sabally said about her 3-point shooting.

“I have the space to create downhill drives, and you have to respect that, so that automatically opens up clearer shots for me, and also great screen setting too. I think I had two or three 3-pointers just off a great ball screen, and then I could shoot that, so also kudos to the people around me that make it possible.”

Sabally was a Mercury-best +11. Only Sabally, Thomas (+9), Whitcomb (+3), and Kathryn Westbeld (+1) were a net positive.

Every Mercury player played fewer than 23 minutes Sunday as Tibbetts looked to give every player an opportunity to secure a roster spot.

Celeste Taylor, Kalani Brown and Alexis Prince were the first subs off the bench for the Mercury.

But after Prince scored 10 points off the bench and impressed in Tuesday’s loss, she was not able to replicate the same success. She struggled mightily and was a -18 and shot 1-for-8 from the field.

“I thought the first half again we played pretty good basketball,” Tibbetts said. “We didn't shoot it great. But we got three pretty good guards that were out that have had good, really good camps for us. So we got to look at some different people which is what you want in the preseason and different lineups and you know my substitution patterns were a little bit off.”

Both teams struggled offensively to begin the game, which saw the Mercury start 2-for-6 from the field as the Valkyries started a woeful 1-for-13 and 0-for-8 from three.

And sloppiness was a trend as well. Back-to-back turnovers from the Mercury saw them finish the first quarter with five. The Mercury ended the first quarter down 15-14 and shot 5-for-18 as the Valkyries shot 6-for-20.

The Mercury went on an early 10-0 run in the second quarter, which led to a 36-29 lead at the half, but strangely Whitcomb was not involved much at all.

Whitcomb did not take shot attempt until there was 1:10 left in the first half and only had two shot attempts for the game. She contributed in other ways, such as her eight rebounds, but the Mercury will need her to take more shots to find success.

Tibbetts said that was not part of the game plan and wanted to see Whitcomb shoot more.

“No, I mean, I think you want to see your shooter shoot,” Tibbetts said. “Again, this is all new to all of us. We need to look for her a little bit more. That's one of her strengths, but just her being on the floor has given (Thomas) and (Sabally) room to work, right?

“They're pressed up on (Whitcomb) and that's going to give those two room to look to attack. So I thought (Whitcomb) had a decent game. She had four turnovers in the first half with (Sabally). That's too many. But we'll find shots for (Whitcomb), but everyone knows who (Whitcomb) is in our league and you know we need to help her.”

Just like Tuesday's loss in Las Vegas, Sunday’s game saw a range of momentum swings. The Mercury started the third quarter strong again, this time going on a 8-0 run to open up a 44-29 lead, their largest of the game, but the Valkyries ended the third quarter on a 22-8 run to tie the score at 57 heading into the fourth.

“Jitters. It's a game,” Mack said about the momentum swings. “We ready, we did it in practice. It's just not doing it to each other in practice, it’s other people.

“So, you got to get the jitters out and just do what we do – what we know to do.”

When Golden State took the lead with 44.1 seconds to play in the third, it was the Valkyries’ first lead since it was 18-16 with nine minutes left in the second quarter.

“Yeah, they got hot,” Tibbetts said. “I thought our defensive intensity kind of took a step back which was disappointing because we were so good in the first half. I don't know if we got a little bit comfortable.

“We got up 15 and maybe some of the starters knew that they were going to come out. I'm not sure. We'll have to look at the film, but we got to be better than that.”

Aside from Mack, who played the first five minutes of the period, the fourth quarter saw the bench players get an opportunity to fight for a roster spot. Megan McConnell and Temira Poindexter were the last players off the bench and are both on the outside looking in to make the team.

The Valkyries built up a 75-68 lead with 1:35 to play, but credit to the Mercury for hanging around.

Two Taylor buckets and a McConnell triple cut the deficit to 80-77 with 37.1 to play, but a rare mental lapse from Taylor saw her foul right away to send Golden State’s Julie Vanloo to the line.

After trading free throws, the Mercury were in a similar position again down three with 21 seconds left but they made the opposite mistake, not fouling soon enough.

Poindexter fouled Vanloo with 3.2 seconds left, allowing almost 20 seconds to run off, and the Valkyries guard made two free throws to ice the game.

Now with the preseason over, Phoenix will begin the regular season on Saturday with a home matchup against the Seattle Storm at 7 p.m. The game can be watched on Arizona’s Family Sports.