WNBA News: Mercury offense ready for return of Diana Taurasi

PHOENIX — Sandy Brondello doesn’t want to put too much pressure on Diana Taurasi as she recovers from her back surgery.

But it’s safe to say that, after their first seven games, the Phoenix Mercury (2-5) are really missing her presence.

“Diana is the greatest player of all time,” Brondello said. “It’s not her scoring that we miss. It’s her leadership. It’s her passing, her movement. We keep stressing, ‘Move the ball,’ but when we have someone like that that does it, it makes it easier on everyone.”

Taurasi continued to be a full participant in practice, but didn’t speak to media on Saturday and was officially listed as “doubtful” in the official injury report, released around 3 p.m. MST. But in her last media session, Taurasi told Jeff Metcalfe of the Arizona Republic and others she was hoping to debut in Sunday’s game vs. the Sparks, though she is approaching her return cautiously.

“It’s easy to just say, ‘I can play the next game,’ but no matter what a game is different than practice. This is very controlled. I can stop any time pretty much in a practice. In a game, it’s a different level of intensity,” Taurasi said on Tuesday, adding she felt she could get her “second wind pretty quickly.”

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Phoenix’s offense has sputtered without Taurasi, averaging just 64.2 points in its five losses (although they’ve have averaged 90 in their two wins). In Thursday’s loss, a 54-point night in Dallas, the Mercury scored the fewest points in a single game since August 19, 2012, when they scored 47 vs. San Antonio.

Of course, Brondello and the Mercury knew they’d miss Taurasi. But the thing that’s caught the head coach off guard in this early stretch is the degree in which their offense is impacted by Taurasi’s presence.

“I want ball-player movement and quick to the next action, and they just got kind of bogged down a bit and let things affect them too much. The team didn’t realize, probably — and I didn’t realize — how much we’d miss Diana,” Brondello said. “But we miss her a ton because of that, because she moves and she can lead. But we still have capable players and we have to play better than what we did.”

In the end, Brondello will leave the final decision on whether or not Taurasi plays up to Taurasi, meaning it likely won’t come until just after warmups on Sunday. While being listed as “doubtful” is usually something done when a player is more likely not to play than play, it’s the first time she’s not been “out” on the injury report all season.

Brondello cautioned against expecting too much from Taurasi, noting that she hasn’t played competitive basketball in 10 months and will need to be eased in slowly. But that doesn’t mean that she can’t make an impact for the Mercury the moment she steps on the floor, even if there’s only a few of those moments.

“I said to Diana, ‘You know your body better than anyone else.’ I know, when I played, I knew if I was ready or not,” Brondello said. “She just has to know that she’s on a limited rotation. But just 12 minutes would help us out, just because she gives confidence.

“She just changes everything.”

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