The second meeting this season between the 2025 WNBA finalists will look very different this time.
The Phoenix Mercury started the season with what looked like a statement victory over the Aces, a convincing 99-66 win in the regular-season opener on May 9 in Las Vegas. However, the teams have been heading in different directions as they prepare for a Commissioner’s Cup game in Phoenix on Wednesday.
The Aces (10-4, 5-1 Commissioner’s Cup) and evergreen MVP candidate A’ja Wilson had won six in a row before suffering a 96-66 loss at Dallas on Monday. Even so, Las Vegas is tied with the Minnesota Lynx for first place in the Western Conference’s standings for the Commissioner’s Cup.
The defending league champion Aces own the tiebreaker over the Lynx and would advance to meet the Eastern Conference representative, the New York Liberty, in the Commissioner’s Cup title game with a win over the Mercury.
“If we don’t get better on the defensive end, the ‘L’s’ are just going to start racking up point blank. Period,” Wilson said after the loss to the Wings. “Sometimes I hate that wins kind of give us a false reality that we’re doing things well when we aren’t.
“When it comes to turning the page, you got to do it, but you really have to do it on the defensive end. We’ll go back, look through some things, obviously go to Phoenix, but it really doesn’t matter who we’re playing against. It’s got to be our defense.”
The Mercury have lost nine of 11, including an excruciating 111-102 overtime defeat to the Los Angeles Sparks the last time out Saturday that dropped them to 4-11 overall and 2-4 in Commissioner’s Cup play.
Mercury guard Kahleah Copper had a career-high 41 points and 10 rebounds against the Sparks, but Kelsey Plum notched a career-high 43 points and made a layup with 1.6 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime.
The Mercury overcame a nine-point deficit in the fourth but ran out of gas in the extra session, when the Sparks scored the first eight points.
“When things are going your way, they’re going your way,” Phoenix coach Nate Tibbetts said. “But when you’re kind of running into the wall, it feels like you just kind of keep running into the wall, and that’s where we are at as far as winning and losing.”
Copper helped jump-start a Mercury offense that moved to a tie for 10th in the 15-team league in scoring (82.2 ppg) but still ranks 11th in field-goal percentage (42.2%) and 12th in 3-point percentage (32%).
“Kah needed one of these nights,” Tibbetts said. “She puts a lot of pressure on herself — obviously, all the veterans do. This is not the start that we wanted … We need her to play free with the mentality to help others.”
Copper scored 15 points in the fourth quarter and overtime against Los Angeles.
“I’ve been overthinking the past few games,” Copper said. “I just want to win, hoop, and make the right plays. Hit shots, take the easy ones, and not overdo it.”
–Field Level Media
