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The Phoenix Mercury\u2019s Satou Sabally, left, and Kahleah Copper, right, pose with the Los Angeles Clippers\u2019 James Harden after securing the win against the New York Liberty Friday at PHX Arena. (Photo by Aryanna Frank\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
PHOENIX \u2013 The postseason march continues for the Phoenix Mercury.<\/p>\n
Leadership, physicality and a historic performance lifted the team past the 2024 WNBA champions, the New York Liberty, Friday at PHX Arena 79-73.<\/p>\n
Despite the Mercury leading for more than 34 minutes of the game, New York was never more than a few steps behind. The Liberty continued to claw at the lead, trailing by seven after the first frame, then by four at the half and by just one heading into the fourth. <\/p>\n
But a well-balanced final 10 minutes of Mercury basketball conquered a dominant-in-the-clutch Breanna Stewart, who, with a sprained MCL, scored the final 14 points for the Liberty, and the only 14 points scored by the team in the fourth. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m extremely proud of this group,\u201d coach Nate Tibbetts said. \u201cEvery time we go through something, it\u2019s going to be the first time together. We\u2019ve got a lot of veteran players on our team that have done it with other organizations. \u2026 In close games, we\u2019ve been really good, and I think it\u2019s because we guard, and there\u2019s a certain level of trust.\u201d <\/p>\n
One of those veterans is Alyssa Thomas, whose name is written all over the Game 3 stat sheet. Recording yet another triple-double, she finished the contest with 20 points, 11 assists and 11 rebounds. That\u2019s in addition to her two steals and one block. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s another mark in the history books for the 11th-year player as she becomes the first in league history to record a 20-point postseason triple-double. This makes for five postseason Thomas triple-doubles: Only two others have done it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were going to win the game,\u201d Thomas said about the team\u2019s mindset heading into the final quarter. \u201cFor us, it\u2019s not about panicking. I think if you watch any of the games, you knew it was going to come down to the wire. Both of us don\u2019t want our season to end, and for us, it\u2019s just keeping our composure and continuing to do what we were doing.\u201d <\/p>\n
It never really felt as if the game was out of reach for the 2024 champions. That was until guard Kahleah Copper\u2019s acrobatic layup to extend the lead with just 32.8 seconds left in the series. She finished with 12 points and nine rebounds. <\/p>\n
Balancing out the performances from Copper and Thomas was forward Satou Sabally, who had her first playoff double-double with a team high in both points with 23 and rebounds with 12.<\/p>\n
Those 12 rebounds were part of a larger picture that saw the Mercury winning the rebound battle in Game 2 and Game 3, after losing it by 17 in Game 1. <\/p>\n
Both coaches knew heading into Game 3 that physical play was vital, especially on the glass. The Mercury finished the game with eight offensive rebounds to New York\u2019s two. <\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, the most physical team wins. It\u2019s as simple as that,\u201d Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said before tipoff. \u201cPlayoff basketball, it can get a little ugly, but it\u2019s being disruptive where you can (and) making the ball be difficult to go from A to B to C.\u201d <\/p>\n
Despite the loss, Brondello held her head high. <\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we\u2019re very, very disappointed, but I couldn\u2019t be more proud of just how we came out and competed today,\u201d the former Mercury coach said. \u201cWe\u2019ve faced a lot of adversity this year, which happens in pro sports, but tonight we left it all out there, and that\u2019s all you can ask from a team.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Mercury head to the best-of-five semifinals to take on the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx. It will be a quick turnaround for the group as it tips off Sunday against a well-rested Lynx team. Minnesota hasn\u2019t played since Wednesday, when it swept the No. 8 Golden State Valkyries.<\/p>\n
The purple and orange won\u2019t be alone, though, as they\u2019ll have the X-factor behind them. The fans sold out Friday\u2019s winner-take-all game with 13,104 in attendance. The Mercury play their first two semifinal games on the road before returning home Friday for Game 3.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt fuels the fire, it\u2019s just so loud, up, down, they cheer us on, and they keep it going,\u201d Sabally said about the crowd. \u201cWhenever we would feel something isn\u2019t going right, they are just cheering us on, motivating us. \u2026 Everyone is just so in it and so invested that it just makes the game a lot more fun, and you want to give 100% every time you have a Mercury jersey on.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Phoenix Mercury\u2019s Satou Sabally, left, and Kahleah Copper, right, pose with the Los Angeles Clippers\u2019 James Harden…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":242101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[4552,5229,5643,1587,1339,4548,5967,160,3663,405,1589,1425,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-242100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-alyssa-thomas","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-arizona","11":"tag-az","12":"tag-basketball","13":"tag-liberty","14":"tag-lynx","15":"tag-mercury","16":"tag-minnesota","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-phoenix","19":"tag-playoffs","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa","26":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115238185835911584","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242100","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=242100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}