{"id":201246,"date":"2025-09-05T03:24:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T03:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/201246\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T03:24:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T03:24:14","slug":"mercury-clinch-home-court-for-1st-round-of-wnba-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/201246\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercury clinch home court for 1st round of WNBA playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Kahleah Copper scored 18 points, Alyssa Thomas had 12 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists as the Phoenix Mercury won their sixth straight game, 75-69, over the Washington Mystics on Thursday night to also clinch home court advantage in the first round of the WNBA playoffs.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">We\u2019ve officially clinched home court advantage for Round 1 of the WNBA Playoffs \u2014 Tickets on sale NOW for Game 1, September 14 at PHX Arena.<\/p>\n<p>The first round runs through Phoenix! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XA8GlrQPa8\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/XA8GlrQPa8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Phoenix Mercury (@PhoenixMercury) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PhoenixMercury\/status\/1963782506693751003?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">September 5, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Mercury (27-14), who had already <a href=\"https:\/\/arizonasports.com\/wnba\/phoenix-mercury\/playoffs-clinch\/3594296\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">clinched a playoff spot<\/a>, moved into a tie for second place in the WNBA standings with the Atlanta Dream. The Mystics (16-26), who have been eliminated from playoff contention, dropped their eighth straight game.<\/p>\n<p>Sami Whitcomb scored 12 points on four 3-pointers for Phoenix. Satou Sabally added 10 points, six rebounds and four assists.<\/p>\n<p>Rookie Kiki Iriafen set a Mystics franchise record with her 16th double-double of the season with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Shakira Austin had 15 points and 10 rebounds. Iriafen broke Crystal Langhorne\u2019s team record with 15 in 2010.<\/p>\n<p>Washington went on a late 7-0 run to get within 71-69. Austin hit a shot through contact and completed the three-point play, Sug Sutton added a 3-pointer and Iriafen made a layup with 1:06 to play.<\/p>\n<p>But Sabally sank a 3-pointer and DeWanna Bonner made a free throw with 17.7 seconds left to cap the scoring.<\/p>\n<p>Phoenix led 44-36 at halftime after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wnba.com\/game\/1022500265\/PHX-vs-WAS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">closing on an 8-0 run<\/a>. The Mystics turned it over five times in the first half, two of them in the final 90 seconds, accounting for 10 points for the Mercury.<\/p>\n<p>Up next for the Mercury<\/p>\n<p>Phoenix heads to play the Sun (10-31) in Connecticut on Saturday, with tipoff at 10 a.m. MST. Watch the action on Arizona\u2019s Family 3TV.<\/p>\n<p>After the Sun, the Mercury have two remaining regular season games at home against the Los Angeles Sparks (19-21) and on the road against the Dallas Wings (9-32).<\/p>\n<p>The first game of the Mercury\u2019s 2025 playoff campaign is Sept. 14.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arizonasports.com\/arizona-sports-newsletter-signup\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/AZSportsEmail-830x100-1.jpg\" style=\"margin: 0 auto;\" class=\"mobile-signup\"\/>\t&#13;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/AZSportsEmail-830x100-1.jpg\" style=\"margin: 0 auto;\" class=\"desktop-signup\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Kahleah Copper scored 18 points, Alyssa Thomas had 12 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":201247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1846,316,1845,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-201246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-arizona-sports-now-on-98-7-fm","9":"tag-home","10":"tag-phoenix-arizona-sports-news-phoenix-breaking-sports-news","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201246","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=201246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}