Phoenix Mercury enter conversation for league’s best with dominant victory over Sun
PHOENIX — Are the Mercury the WNBA’s best?
They surely are the hottest, and not just because they extinguished the league’s other solar team, the Connecticut Sun, 89-72, on Saturday.
It’s a matter of how — emphatic, instantaneous, destructive.
Early in the game, the Mercury danced into the holes in the Sun defense with smooth passing and made open shots, igniting a 16-9 lead.
Veteran Sancho Lyttle, acquired in the offseason to add versatility to one of the league’s best defenses, was the offensive catalyst early, scoring six points.
“They were so concerned about D (Diana Taurasi) and BG (Brittney Griner) on the weak side that they didn’t bring that rotation over there,” said Mercury coach Sandy Brondello after the game.
“And then it’s just about makes and misses.”
When the second unit came in, putting Camille Little and Leilani Mitchell on the court, things got a little tighter, and the ball sputtered through the sludge of hesitancy. Jonquel Jones helped put the game within reach for the Sun on the back of some mean defense.
On the other side, Connecticut found solid offense creating open shots off movement for Shekinna Stricklen, who just couldn’t execute early in the game. She finished 1-7 from the field, scoring just two points. Her struggles encapsulated a frustrating night for the Sun, perhaps as a result of their exhaustion, having played in Seattle on Friday night.
With the offense sputtering, the Sun tried to slow the pace down in the second quarter.
But getting into a defensive battle with the Mercury is a trick they would love to have you fall for. Griner didn’t have to give as much as a scorer in the first half, and her energy was saved for the opposite end. She remains the only interior defender in the league who can consistently scare people away from shooting, and finished with three blocks. The Sun scored just six points in the quarter.
The Mercury did not have this luxury last season. Shackled by a shallow, young roster, a night in which Griner was unengaged or passive on offense would have spelled ruin. This might be what coaches mean when they rave about the value of veteran experience on the roster. Phoenix had double the assists of Connecticut, with 22 compared to the Sun’s 11.
Taurasi explained that pass-first mentality as “a willingness to trust each other.”
Teams winning as dominantly as the Mercury were in this one (25 points by the middle of the third quarter) can become complacent. Aggressiveness is a surprising infectant within complacent teams. The Sun tried to wiggle their way back in, pulling up early in the shot clock and using speed to try and slip into open space before Griner’s arms canceled it out.
“It was unfortunate I had to put the starters back in there,” Brondello said. “But this is a game I didn’t want to let slip away.”
But that’s not the rhythm Connecticut wants. The shots wouldn’t fall. Phoenix carried a 22-point lead into the final quarter.
No competition from there — give a defensive team a lead to protect, and a lead you will keep.