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Can Mercury keep boat afloat down the stretch?

Courtesy: Mercury

Can you feel that?

Feels like the dog days of summer.

And they haven’t necessarily been kind to the Phoenix Mercury.

A stellar first half of the season saw Phoenix win 15 of 21 games despite missing Kahleah Copper for over half those matchups.

They were flying around defensively (among the league’s best in steals and blocks at the time), generally took care of the basketball (even in losses), and even set a handful of franchise three-point shooting records (big thanks to WNBA assist leader Alyssa Thomas setting up her shooters for success).

 

You add 2014 Mercury Champion DeWanna Bonner to the mix and Phoenix making a run at the WNBA’s second seed…things were looking wayyy up for the Mercury. 

She’s shown her value through veteran leadership, constantly keeping the defense guessing with her backdoor cuts and sealed a couple victories herself for the team too.

 

Since that 15-6 record, Phoenix has gone 7-8.

PHX is still top five in three-pointers made, steals per game, rebounds per game, continue to keep turnovers relatively low, and are barely outside the top teams in assists per game (20.5) and points per game (83.0) – but the inconsistent results raise questions.

One question in particular: is this team a legit championship contender or just very good? 

As great as Alyssa Thomas is, and the top three MVP candidate is GREAT, she can only put so much on her shoulders.

She tied the WNBA regular season record for most triple-doubles with six (set by Thomas herself) and set the Mercury record for most assists in a single game with 16 against the Valkyries on the same night.

 

However, for the Mercury to reach its potential, fellow stars Satou Sabally and Kahleah Copper are going to need to carry the scoring load.

Can’t expect perfection, but especially in highly anticipated matchups like against the Atlanta Dream a couple weeks ago, Sabally and Copper simply need to be better than combining for 6 of 26 from the field.

To their credit, they put up 41 points together in the next game against the red hot Aces. But that game ended on an inexcusable miscommunication on a late-game inbounds pass:

 

Both head coach Nate Tibbetts and Sabally took accountability for the mistake; a learning opporunity to say the least this late in the season.

That brings me to their latest matchup against Las Vegas on August 21 where the squad scored its lowest total (61) and had its lowest amount of team assists (12) of the year.

Copper left the game early with a rib injury and Sabally wasn’t happy about playing the Valkyries at home the very next day:

 

Despite both of them dealing with injuries and personal absences, this roster’s chemistry is clearly strong as they enter this final stretch:

 

Outside of the Dream, they’ve had impressive wins against all of the league’s top teams, and Tibbetts seems to have found what will likely be his playoff rotation.

Thomas-Sabally-Copper-Akoa Makani-Mack

Whitcomb-Westbeld-Bonner-Held (recently earned minutes again)

“I like the eight-player rotation we got going on that allows our players to get into a rhythm,” Tibbetts said. “Trying to find different rotations and staying a little bit consistent…I want there to be a comfort level with our players…who’s playing with who and when they’re coming in…I like where we’re at. We’ll probably need a little more time just to see what my eyes are seeing, if the numbers back them up. We need others to stay ready.”

For a chunk of games, that rotation didn’t include Lexi Held, which raised eyebrows, but that’s likely due to slowly coming back from her pneumothorax injury on her right lung.

Fans have personally voiced their concerns to me about 6-7 center Kalani Brown’s lack of playing time, but the postseason is all about matchups, and I’d be surprised if Tibbetts didn’t call her number if he needed to in a given playoff series.

To be clear, this isn’t a *break glass* piece. It’s actually about how they’ve shown flashes of being an elite team despite a tough go at it lately.

The X-Factor knows the difference cause they’ve had the pleasure of watching three titles come through the desert.

“Us not getting to high, not getting to low,” Bonner said. “This season has ups and downs…how we handle that and how we just play every single game is important. Staying even-keeled and just knowing when the time comes, we’ll be peaking at the right time.”

Following their 22nd win of the year (and another triple-double from Thomas), Phoenix has eight games left to jostle for best playoff seed possible.

As it stands on August 22nd, PHX is the five seed and would face the New York Liberty in the first round.

 

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