Mercury-Sun: Double-digit win streaks face off
For only the second time in the WNBA’s 25-year history, two teams on a current double-digit win streak will face off Saturday.
The league-leading Connecticut Sun (23-6), winners of 11 straight games, will meet the Phoenix Mercury (19-10), on a 10-game roll, at Footprint Center in what could be a playoff semifinal or even Finals preview.
There’s still much to sort out in playoff seeding between now and end of the regular season Sept. 19, but through Thursday the Sun are in first place and the Mercury in fourth with Las Vegas (21-8) and Seattle (20-10) in between.
The Mercury face all three teams ahead of them over the final nine days of the regular season, a stretch that could boost them as high as second place or drop them to fifth and out of a bye position for the playoff first round Sept. 23.
The playoff seeding tiebreakers between the Mercury and Seattle/Las Vegas will be decided in games on Sept. 17 and 19. Seattle will be without star forward Breanna Stewart for the rest of the regular season due to a foot injury.
“Every game I’m excited for, but Connecticut is going to be a great indicator of where we’re at and what we need to work on,” Mercury coach Sandy Brondello said Friday.
The Mercury played twice against the Sun in May, losing both games (8678 and 84-67). The teams have not met since and will do so Saturday in one of the most high profile regular season games since 2016 when Minnesota opened the season 12-0 and faced 11-0 Los Angeles with the Lynx winning 7269.
Connecticut hasn’t lost a league game since July 3 although they were dominated 79-57 by Seattle in the Commissioner’s Cup final played Aug. 12 in Phoenix.
The Mercury are 10-0 in games played after the Olympics although all but one were against teams with a losing record. So it’s tricky in assessing how much the soft schedule helped Phoenix to turn around what a 9-10 preOlympic record compared to better health and improvement on both ends of the court.
The Sun’s nine post-Olympics wins include two over Minnesota (18-10) and one over Las Vegas.
“Any game can be a tough game in this league,” Mercury forward Brianna Turner said. “We’ve had close games with Indiana and Atlanta, but you can’t take anybody lightly. Our main goal is to win and if we keep winning that will be us in a good position for playoffs. It’s very motivating for us, and we want to keep it up.”
Mercury center Brittney Griner will be back after missing Wednesday’s game at Atlanta for personal reasons. But Diana Taurasi will sit out a second straight game due to an ankle injury suffered Monday against Indiana. Shey Peddy again will start in Taurasi’s absence, coming off a career high 18-point game that included scoring the final five points in a 76-75 comeback win.
The Sun won 75-57 Thursday at Los Angeles, jumping to a 17-0 lead and never trailing to clinch a playoff double bye through to the best-of-5 semifinals.
Sun forward Jonquel Jones is arguably the leading candidate for WNBA MVP, averaging 19.9 points and 11 rebounds. The front line of 6-6 Jones, 6-3 center Brionna Jones and 6-4 forward DeWanna Bonner is a difficult matchup for the Mercury even with 6-9 Griner and 6-3 Turner because of former Mercury Bonner’s length and versatility.
“They have a great front line, and the guards complement them as well,” Brondello said. “We know DB (Bonner) will be really motivated, she’s having a great season for them. It’s a team that can be really dangerous if you allow them to so we’ve got to make sure we get off to a better start than what we have been. We can’t be a second-half team. It’s a good challenge for us, I look forward to it.”
The Mercury have won games during their current streak without Skylar Diggins-Smith, Griner and most recently Griner and Taurasi. They are getting more depth contributions than in the pre-Olympic portion of the season including from guard Bria Hartley, who scored nine points Wednesday in her third game back from major knee surgery.
The Sun, without guard Alyssa Thomas (Achilles) all season, are not especially deep with their key reserves being Natisha Hiedeman and Kaila Charles. Former Mercury guard Briann January, out of Arizona State, is a starter and key perimeter defender.
Up next
Connecticut Sun at Phoenix Mercury, 7 p.m. Saturday, Footprint Center — The Mercury (19-10) are on a 10-game win streak going into their next to last regular season home game, the WNBA-leading Sun (23-6), with 11 consecutive wins. There is no local TV coverage for the important showdown because NBA TV is showing the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony instead.