Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas, center, battles Las Vegas Aces guard Chelsea Gray, right, for the ball during the second half in Game 1 of the WNBA basketball finals Friday in Las Vegas. (Photo by John Locher/Associated Press)
LAS VEGAS – Down by one with 24.6 seconds left, the Phoenix Mercury were the beneficiaries of a controversial foul call in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals Friday that sent MVP candidate Alyssa Thomas, one of the team’s most steady players, to the line for two.
Neither went in.
It was a surprising twist of fate in a game that saw the Mercury command the narrative through the first three quarters before running out of gas and ultimately succumbing to a 89-86 loss.
Afterward, Mercury guard Kahleah Copper was asked if Thomas needed encouragement.
“Nah,” Copper said. “She good.”
The missed free throws were only one small piece of a game that got away from the team. Heading into Michelob Ultra Arena Friday, the Mercury were aware of their lack of an opening-game victory in the postseason, with coach Nate Tibbetts noting that their offense in the first quarter was a tell-tale sign of their shortcomings.
“We wish we’d start in the fourth quarter,” Tibbetts said, chuckling. “We’ve talked to our group about getting off to a good start, especially with the atmosphere we’re walking into. We’ve shown the ability to come back, but you never want to rely on that.”
Coming from behind in a series can be easier in a shorter series like Phoenix had against New York and Minnesota, but with the adoption of a brand new seven-game format, coming from behind becomes a taller task.
“Any time you go on the road and you’re the lower seed, you want to try to steal one early,” Tibbetts said. “This is going to be new for all of us. It’s going to be new for Vegas, and I’m excited it’s here.”
It felt as though the Mercury were on their way to a clean steal of Game 1, as the offense shot 52.9% in the field and 47.1% behind the arc in the first half, a pace that gave Phoenix a 50-45 lead by the buzzer.
Copper led the scoring with 19 points by halftime, including five 3-point shots that tied former Mercury guard Diana Taurasi’s record for the most 3-pointers in any half of a WNBA Finals game. Thomas joined in on the action herself with 10 points in the paint and six assists.
The Mercury’s offense went on three separate runs through the first three quarters, including a 10-0 run in the first quarter, a 14-6 run to close out the half and a 16-6 run in the third to give Phoenix its largest lead of the night, 66-57.
Pressured to make a change, Aces coach Becky Hammon called for her team to switch to zone coverage on defense, a decision that ultimately won the game for Las Vegas.
“I was seeing them score too much against our man,” Hammon said. “I thought them getting the ball in the paint, whether it was off a pass or penetration, was really hurting us. I just tried something different to where we didn’t give up the middle so easily.”
From the second half on, Copper and Thomas combined for just seven points as the Las Vegas defense became insurmountable. With key contributions from the Aces bench, the game quickly flipped on its head.
“We didn’t really execute our zone,” Copper said. “We should’ve slowed down a little bit.”
The offense was hardly the issue, as the Mercury suffered from turnovers that allowed for Las Vegas to score an additional 20 points. For forward Satou Sabally, playing back to their strengths will be crucial in Game 2.
“We have to play better defense,” Sabally said. “Just go back to what we do best and then I think the results will show that we are the better team.”
“We’ve been in a ton of close games,” Tibbetts said. “We’ve played well in the fourth, and I thought we did some good things in this fourth quarter as well. This is why this is going to be a great series, it’s going to come down to the last few possessions of the game.”
Though the offense for Las Vegas was expected to be potent, the allocation of points was different from previous series. The majority of the scoring didn’t come from regulars like Jackie Young or Chelsea Gray, but rather came from Dana Evans and the Aces bench.
Evans became the first player in WNBA Finals history to post five or more 3-pointers and four steals in a single game, a historic accolade that helped her notch a postseason-high 21 points and helped the bench outscore the Mercury’s non-starters 41-16.
“Dana is a little scorer,” Hammon said with a smile. “She is a problem. You saw in the previous series, Indiana switched their defense whenever she came into the game”
Throughout the postseason, the Mercury’s personal identity has revolved around being the “underdogs” and was largely backed up by clutch fourth-quarter comebacks that forced opponents to battle until the end. Though the comeback was absent from Friday night, the mentality hasn’t gone away.
“No one was expecting anything from us earlier in the year,” Tibbetts said. “A lot of our players have maybe been overlooked their whole career, which is awesome. They’ve put themselves in a position to be successful as a group, and we’ve just continued to grow.”
Game 2 will take place Sunday noon MST, as the Mercury hope to return to home with a series tie and home-court advantage in the race to four wins.