Phoenix Mercury's Kahleah Copper delivers more heroics in win over Las Vegas Aces
Copper is just the second player in WNBA history with back-to-back games with at least 35 points.
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Kahleah Copper has done it again.
Before being traded to Phoenix in February, Copper had scored 37 points just once in her career (July 25, 2023 against Las Vegas).
She’s now scored at least 37 points in her last two games. Copper followed up a 38 point-performance on Saturday with 37 points on Tuesday in a 98-88 win over the Las Vegas Aces to help the Mercury improve to 2-1 on the season.
Copper is just the second player in WNBA history with back-to-back games with at least 35 points (Liz Cambage achieved the feat in 2018), and just the third player to start a WNBA season with at least 90 points over their first three games (Maya Moore also did it in 2014 and Elena Delle Donne did it in 2015), per Across the Timeline.
“Again, I think I was just put in perfect positions,” Copper said. “And I’m a competitor. You know we came in here last week … and we didn’t leave the court hanging our heads. Like, we went about it like we gonna get right back out there so, like I said before, shoutout to my teammates, shoutout to my coaches for believing in me and we come into those huddles and we’re drawing up plays and I’m just put in a position to make a play and that’s just what I tried to do.”
It was the first time Phoenix topped Las Vegas since Oct. 8., 2021 after dropping 10 straight games to the two-time defending champions.
The Aces entered as -13.5 point favorites and only dropped two games in Las Vegas all of last season (including the playoffs).
Copper also matched her career-high of five 3-pointers and the Mercury tied a franchise record of 16 made 3-pointers. The Mercury shot 16-of-33 from deep as coach Nate Tibbetts has repeatedly said he wants his team to take 35-40 3-pointers per game.
“We want to get to the paint and we want to shoot threes,” Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said. To go along with the 3-point barrage, the Mercury had 32 points in the paint on Tuesday.
“I think we had 19 attempts in the first half (from three) and they did a good job of limiting us to only 14 (attempts from three in the second half),” Tibbetts said. “Obviously, we’re not gonna shoot 48% from three every night, that was a big reason why we won the game, but we’re gonna keep shooting them and I think they believe in that and they believe in the work they’re putting in, so we’re gonna stay with it and keep letting it fly.”
The Mercury had also made 16 3-pointers on Sept. 8, 2007 (in the WNBA Finals vs. Detroit) and on May 25, 2010 (vs. Tulsa).
The most 3-pointers made in a regular season WNBA game is 18 (which was achieved on three separate occasions), while the Aces set the single-game record when they made 23 3-pointers against the Mercury on Aug. 20, 2022 in the playoffs.
On Tuesday, Copper got off to a strong start and the Mercury kept going to the hot hand.
“(Copper) had a big night again,” Tibbetts said. “Just what she’s done for our team, it’s allowed others to kind of be more comfortable in their role and she can score that thing at a high level. She’s finding her spots, she’s getting to the rim. She’s got nine threes attempted tonight which we love. I thought she played at a super high level once again.”
In the first quarter, Copper had 16 points and was 4-for-4 from behind the arc.
But after banging knees with Kelsey Plum, Copper exited with 2:20 left in the second quarter and sat out the rest of the first half.
The Mercury avoided the worst-case-scenario as she was back on the floor to start the second half.
Unlike last week in Las Vegas, Phoenix controlled most of the game Tuesday and led by as many as 15.
But after the Aces went on a 15-2 run late and cut the Mercury lead to 90-88 with 48 seconds left, it was who else but Copper who saved the day.
After a Tibbetts timeout, Copper scored a driving layup with 42.1 seconds left to put the Mercury back up by four at 92-88.
“I keep telling (Copper) when we made the trade I spent a lot of time watching film on her and I’m just thankful she’s in a Mercury jersey and I’m getting to see her play live every night,” Tibbetts said. “I think the team feels it. She’s a hot player right now. She’s getting downhill, she’s being extremely aggressive and we needed every one of them.”
After Aces guard Jackie Young missed an 18-footer with 30 seconds left and Diana Taurasi missed a pair of free-throws, the Aces missed a couple of 3-pointers.
The Mercury then sealed the win after Natasha Cloud hit a couple of free throws, Copper had another bucket with 11 seconds left and Sophie Cunningham converted a pair of foul shots.
Copper finished with 37 points, four rebounds, three assists, three steals and a block in 30 minutes. On the night, Copper was 15-of-29 from the field and 5-for-9 from deep.
“I’m really happy the way some of our bench players played,” Tibbetts said. The Mercury had 27 points from their bench on Tuesday. “Sug Sutton had an unbelievable training camp for us and if you were to ask her she’d probably tell you she’s a little disappointed in her first two games.”
After being a -20 last week in Las Vegas and shooting a combined 2-for-8 from the field in her first two games, Sutton had 12 points off the bench on Tuesday and shot a perfect 3-for-3 from deep.
“(Sutton) was fearless, she shot three threes and Liz Dixon was awesome,” Tibbetts said. “(Dixon) came in and played extremely hard. Her and Natasha Mack flew around and protected the paint and set good screens, so we’ve got nine players and we’re gonna play them every night and we expect them to come in and give us a lift and they did tonight.”
In 12 minutes of action, Dixon did just that, as she was a +18 on Tuesday. Cunningham also added nine points and nine rebounds off the bench.
“I think just their effort, their willingness to come in and work every day,” Tibbetts said about his bench. “We know that we’re a veteran group upfront. We’ve got a lot of young players that are (backups). These are first-time minutes for a lot of them, besides (Sutton) and (Cunningham). So (Cunningham) has come in and she’s played the two, she’s played the three, she’s played the four, now she’s playing the five.
“We’ve got a veteran group, I’m trying not to play them big minutes, that’s the goal. We want to look at things big picture and so we want to build some camaraderie and belief in our bench and I kinda told them I don’t know when or how long you’re gonna be coming in but you’re gonna get in that game and make an impact and they’ve done that.”
Phoenix now has two days off before it returns to Footprint Center for a home game against the Washington Mystics (0-4) on Thursday at 7 p.m. The game can be watched on Arizona’s Family Sports or streamed on Prime Video.