Phoenix Mercury unable to stop Seattle Storm's Gabby Williams, Skylar Diggins in loss
Seattle's Gabby Williams set a career-high for points in a half when she had 18 in the first half, while Skylar Diggins had 22 of her season-high 26 points in the second half.
PHOENIX — The Phoenix Mercury were unable to contain Gabby Williams and later Skylar Diggins in Saturday’s 89-77 loss to the Seattle Storm.
Williams was the one who lit the Mercury up in the first half, while Diggins dominated during the second half to hand Phoenix (6-4) its third loss in the past five games without Alyssa Thomas (left calf).
“I think tonight was the first night that we had some doubt in (the) pick-and-roll,” Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said. “I think it’s been probably one of the best things we’ve done defensively.
“I don’t know if it’s fatigue … And you’ve got a coupe of elite guards that got comfortable in the first half. I think (Williams) had 18 in the first half and we did a good job on her and (Diggins) took over down the stretch. It’s what great players do. And we need to be better in pick-and-roll situations.”
In the first half, Williams contributed for almost all of Seattle’s offense. She had 18 points (on 7-for-9 shooting), five assists, two rebounds, a block and zero turnovers.
The French forward set a career high for points in a half on Saturday, while also shooting 4-for-5 from deep in the first half, which also tied her career high for made 3s in an entire game.
“She's in a great pocket right now,” Storm coach Noelle Quinn said. “From shooting the 3 at a high clip, to her efficiency around the rim, getting downhill, and you know, what she does defensively.
“In the playmaking, there are a lot of things, she's our French army knife. So, there are a lot of things that she does so well on the court, and it allows all of our players to be exactly who they are.”
Diggins only had four points at the half and missed her first seven shots; however, she quickly heated up and scorched the Mercury for 22 points in the second half on 7-for-10 shooting.
As the Mercury turned much of their defensive attention to Williams in the second half, who only took one shot attempt (a 3 that she made), they left Diggins uncontained.
Diggins’ 26 points marked a season high for her and she shot 4-for-8 from 3. The Storm shot 12-for-22 (54.5%) from deep on Saturday after shooting 3-for-17 (17.7%) when these same teams played in the season opener in the same building on May 17.
“I think they got comfortable and any time a team goes 12-for-22 (54.5%), it’s gonna be hard to beat them,” Tibbetts said. “But (Williams and Diggins) are great players and they had a good night.”
It was a very uncharacteristic start from the Mercury who did not attempt a 3 during the first 5:50 of the first quarter and instead focused on getting to the rim.
Phoenix averages 29 attempts from 3 per game, the fourth-most in the league.
The Mercury finished the first half with only eight attempts from 3 but got that number up to 25 by the end of the game (8-for-25).
“You’re gonna see us evolve and change,” Tibbetts said. “I’m guessing teams are gonna try to take away our 3s. (Thomas) produces a lot of 3s for us. Not having her out there obviously kinda changes things … In the first half we didn’t get enough up.”
The Mercury opened the second quarter on a 10-2 run and their offense looked much better in the first half than it had in the four previous games without Thomas.
However, Seattle answered right back with a 9-0 run to take a 35-29 lead, which was capped by Diggins’ first make of the night, coming off a Williams assist.
“I think we only had a couple shots that were unassisted, and so once we got into that pocket, we just kind of stayed in it,” Williams said.
“Multiple people got hot at multiple times tonight, and we were just trying to find that person. My teammates did a great job of finding me today in the first half, and then when (Diggins) got hot, we did a great job finding her …
“What makes (Diggins) so great is if she can go 1-for-8 you still have to respect the hell out of her. So, that's why she's able to get those (five) assists in the first half, because she's still being aggressive and still creating those things, so there's so many things that happen outside of just scoring the basketball.”
The Storm took a 46-43 lead at the half, but the Mercury offense looked among the best it has this season in a first half. Phoenix shot 16-for-26 (61.5%) in the first half and was led by Satou Sabally’s 11 points.
Surviving the minutes without Sabally on the floor has been tough for the Mercury this season, especially during Thomas’ absence.
When Sabally took a brief 1:39 rest in the third, the Storm took their then-biggest lead (eight points) as the Mercury shot 1-for-6 during that stretch.
After Sabally checked back in, she hit back-to-back buckets, as nine of her 22 points came in the third.
The fourth quarter saw Diggins continue to excel and the Mercury result to having to shoot 3s as they fell behind, which they did so at a poor 2-for-10 (20%) clip in the final period.
After Diggins made a 3 with 4:51 remaining, she gave a Michael Jordan-esque shrug to the crowd she once played for. That 3 matched Seattle’s then-largest lead of eight.
The Mercury then shot eight 3s in the final 3:38, missing six in a row and seven of eight as they were unable to claw their way back into a game this time around.
The Storm were able to outscore the Mercury 24-16 in the fourth.
“They hit some shots and we didn’t,” Sabally said. “But what makes us is our defense, and we were not able to do that in the last four minutes. So that was really where we failed. I don’t think they did anything extraordinary.
“It was really us that were just kinda going away from what we can do and what we believe in.”
As the frustration mounted for Phoenix, Tibbetts picked up a technical foul with 1:32 remaining, just the Mercury’s second of the season and Tibbetts’ first.
The Mercury had 35 technical fouls during the 2024 season, setting a new WNBA record for the most by a single team.
“I’ve got no opinion on that,” Tibbetts said about the officiating. “I think my opinion was during the game.”
The Mercury will wrap-up their three-game homestand on Wednesday when they take on the Dallas Wings (1-8) at 7 p.m. The game can be watched on Arizona’s Family 3TV or Arizona’s Family Sports.