Fortunately, Thomas herself did not feel the injury worsen immediately after the game, as she told Doug Feinberg of AP that her hand was \u201cfine.\u201d But don\u2019t take her word for it. Thomas is used to playing through the pain. She has played with a torn labrum, the ring of cartilage that stabilizes the shoulder joint, in both arms for 8 years. She refuses to get them fixed because, she says, \u201cThey said the surgery and recovery is harder than the Achilles.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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via Imago<\/p>\n
Photo credit: Domenic Allegra | The Next<\/p>\n
And of course, she has experience with that too. In January 2022, she tore that tendon in her left leg, which required eight months of grueling rehab. Her pain tolerance level is unusually high, but in the finals of a physical league, the hand is bound to get sore in the final minutes. While it could have affected the missed free throws, that was not Thomas\u2019s reason. \u201cIt happens,\u201d Thomas simply said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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While Thomas will likely play through any injury she faces, her injury should be monitored. Tibbetts wouldn\u2019t want his star player breaking down in a must-win hypothetical Game 7 or even earlier. Moving on to their on-court display, the Mercury played a Game of two halves as the Aces stormed back in the second. Nate Tibbet\u2019s gave Becky Hammon credit for her tactical change in the second half.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alyssa Thomas And Co. failed to adapt<\/b><\/p>\n
The Phoenix Mercury were giving A\u2019ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces a run for their money in the first half, going into the second leading 50-45. Alyssa Thomas was consistently penetrating the paint along with Natasha Mack as the entire Mercury scored 18 of their 50 first-half points from the paint. However, in the second half, the Aces abandoned their scoring-heavy approach and adjusted their tactics, something Tibbetts had no answer for.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThey went zone. You know, we got up, I don\u2019t know if it was nine, something like that. And, uh, they went zone. Kind of made us stand a little bit. I thought we had some good looks. You know, give them credit for mixing up their defense. Thought it was a good adjustment. We didn\u2019t handle it well.\u201d He admitted after the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n via Imago<\/p>\n Chicago, USA, June 21, 2025: Phoenix Mercury Head Coach, Nate Tibbetts, is seen during the game between the Chicago Sky and Phoenix Mercury on Saturday June 21, 2025 at Wintrust Arena, Chicago, USA. NO COMMERCIAL USAGE Shaina Benhiyoun\/SPP PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxBRAxMEX Copyright: xShainaxBenhiyoun\/SPPx spp-en-ShBe-8P6A1578<\/p>\n Typically, you can advance past the zone with some quick ball movement or effective outside shooting. And the Mercury is a decent 3-point shooting team (34% from three). However, they were taken by surprise by the Aces. Their drives were limited, along with movement in the paint. Phoenix went 6-18 in the fourth quarter, converting just two of their 12 three-point attempts.\u00a0<\/p>\n ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Thomas didn\u2019t get as much success as in the first half, with the left hand bothering her. She had five points and three assists in the second half compared to 10 and six, respectively, in the first. In addition, her size advantage against smaller guards (in this case, Dana Evans), which Tibbetts usually deploys, was nullified. However, they will be better prepared for Game 2, while A\u2019ja Wilson and Co<\/a> will try to bury them by taking a 2-0 lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After all the wizardry throughout the game from Alyssa Thomas, she stumbled at the line. With 25 seconds…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":278049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[62,67,132,68,29659,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-278048","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-usatnsyndication","13":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115318027952843932","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278048","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=278048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"article-image\"\/](\"https:\/\/image-cdn.essentiallysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/imago1063146250.jpg?width=600\")
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