Head coach Nate Tibbetts benched Sabally for the entire second half, saying it was a “coach’s decision,” per Desert Wave Media<\/a>. “She didn’t bring the energy that we needed,” he said in a postgame presser. <\/p>\n Phoenix Mercury forward Satou Sabally (0) holds her head Wednesday, July 30, 2025, during the game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The Indiana Fever defeated the Phoenix Mercury, 107-101. \/ Grace Hollars\/IndyStar \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n She wasn’t the only Mercury player who struggled in the road loss and the benching, perhaps intended to light a fire under the team (or under Sabally, for the next game, at least) didn’t help the Mercury right the ship in the second half. They were outscored 26-8 in the third without Sabally. It was the fewest points Phoenix has scored in any quarter in any game this season. <\/p>\n Sabally, the team’s leader in points per game, missed time this season with an ankle injury<\/a> that kept her out of the All-Star Game, but has played in every game since play resumed after the All-Star break. That ankle could still be bothering her, as she’s been less effective offensively since returning to a full lineup than she had been when she was carrying a bigger load on a team dealing with injury issues. <\/p>\n In the team’s four losses after the break, she’s shot just 14-for-47 (29.7%) from the field and 3-for-19 (15.7%) from three, with the lone positive shooting performance coming on a 6-for-10 night from the field in a win over the Washington Mystics. <\/p>\n Phoenix fans will be hoping that the extra rest will help Sabally if she’s still bothered by the ankle issue and that she’ll be able to get back on track over the coming weeks. If Phoenix is going to play up their potential, they’ll need their star wing to play like her usual self. <\/p>\n Check our X <\/a>and Facebook<\/a> pages for all things Mercury. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Phoenix Mercury suffered their worst loss of the season on Sunday, falling 95-72 in a game that…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":113487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-113486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114960268298940592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n