There won’t be much to play for when the Dallas Wings and Phoenix Mercury clash on Thursday in Arlington, Texas, in the regular-season finale for both teams.
They will essentially be playing for little but pride on Thursday. The Mercury (27-16) are locked into the No. 4 seed in the WNBA playoffs and will play the fifth-seeded New York Liberty, the defending league champion, in the best-of-three first round beginning Sunday in Phoenix.
Dallas, a league-worst 9-34, has long been eliminated from the postseason and will have plenty of questions to answer and issues to address in the offseason.
The Mercury are coming off of an 88-83 loss at home to the Los Angeles Sparks on Tuesday. Phoenix pulled its starters in the fourth quarter when it learned it could not climb any higher in the standings, but the Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas still produced her eighth triple-double of the season with 10 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Thomas’ eight triple-doubles are more than the rest of the WNBA combined.
Satou Sabally paced her team with 24 points and Sami Whitcomb had 11 off the bench for the Mercury, who have dropped two straight games after racking up six straight wins.
The Mercury’s bench players performed well in the fourth quarter on Tuesday and will likely get the bulk of the court time for Thursday’s contest.
“I’m super proud of that group,” Phoenix coach Nate Tibbetts said about his reserves. “Some of those players haven’t gotten the minutes that maybe they like or deserve. As a head coach, you got to make tough decisions, but I think it shows the talent level and depth we have on our team. My hope is that this can give them a little bit of life and energy to just stay ready.”
The season can’t get over fast enough for the Wings, who have lost their past 10 games and have won just once since July 29. Dallas has dropped 15 of its last 16 contests despite the efforts of erstwhile Rookie of the Year candidate Paige Bueckers, who leads the team in points per game (19.1), assists (5.3), steals (1.6) and minutes (33.4) while playing in 35 contests.
The Wings return home after a four-game road trip that concluded with a 91-77 setback in Los Angeles on Sunday. Bueckers finished with 18 points, seven assists and six rebounds in the loss while Myisha Hines-Allen posted a double-double (15 points, 13 rebounds) and Maddy Siegrist hit for 13 points.
“Just always together,” Dallas coach Chris Koclanes said about his focus for the final game. “(We must) continue to learn from every opportunity we get. We go home, get a couple of days to practice before that game, so it’s more opportunities to learn from this one, prepare and get better.”
Guard Arike Ogunbowale, a four-time All-Star and perennial MVP candidate who becomes a free agent after the season, has been out since Aug. 10 because of a knee injury. The team never gelled under Koclanes, a first-year coach. Dallas must win on Thursday to avoid matching its worst full-season win total since the franchise moved from Tulsa to North Texas for the 2016 campaign.
Dallas has captured one of the three games played against the Mercury this season.
–Field Level Media
