One constant for the Phoenix Mercury over the last three seasons is that they could count on beating the Indiana Fever, either to end a losing streak or extend their winning.
That seeming inevitability ended Wednesday when the Fever held off the Mercury 106-100 at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.
It was at least partial payback for Indiana, which had lost six straight and nine of the last 10 to Phoenix including three games by an average of 15.6 points last year.
This time, though, the Mercury fell into double-digit holes in the second and third quarters before taking a five-point lead early in the fourth.
Indiana, under new coach Marianne Stanley, could have folded and probably would have in the recent past. Instead, the Fever quickly regained the lead, stretched it to nine with 2:19 left and won 106-100 in a game between teams that suffered one-sided losses in their season openers last week.
Now it’s the Mercury at 0-2 in a 22-game regular season under intense pressure to win Friday against Las Vegas to keep from falling into a steep hole in a short season.
“I don’t think I would be too disappointed yet,” said guard Bria Hartley, who tied her career scoring high with 26 points in 25 minutes off the bench. “We can fight through some adversity. We’ve got to keep working to get better every day and hopefully we can string some wins.
“We’ve just got to make sure we’re building and get in the playoffs, and we’ve got to be playing our best basketball when it comes to the end of the season. We don’t need to be playing our best basketball right now.”
Second team outplays first
What the Mercury can’t be doing is giving up 102.5 points per game as they have against Los Angeles and Indiana.
The Fever shot 51.4 percent, made nine 3-pointers and 25-of-27 free throws with four players scoring 18-24 points.
“We just over-helped when we didn’t need to,” said Mercury coach Sandy Brondello, perhaps in overreaction to a 99-76 loss to LA on July 25. “We gave them some really easy looks, baseline penetration, BG (Brittney Griner) would help and they’d pass it to (Teaira) McCowan.
“Our second unit was way better than our first unit. That first unit’s got to find a way to play better defense.”
Fever veteran forward Candice Dupree had her way with second-year Brianna Turner in the first quarter, scoring 11 of her 23 points. Kelsey Mitchell made three of her four 3-pointers in the second quarter on the way to 18. Tiffany Mitchell had a big second half for an Indiana high of 24, and 6-7 McCowan showed immense improvement going against 6-9 Griner for a double-double (20 points/13 rebounds).
McCowan’s tip-in, three-point play and 7-footer in the final four minutes largely iced the win.
The Mercury got back within 102-100 with 13.6 seconds left before Tiffany Mitchell made two free throws and Hartley missed a pair. Phoenix missed 10 free throws, going 23-of-33.
Griner improves in game 2
Indiana dominated on the boards even more than the final 38-28 margin.
The Mercury had just eight turnovers, down from 27 against LA.
In addition to Hartley’s 26, Griner scored 23, up from eight vs. the Spars.
“The moves felt good,” Griner said. “When I shot the ball, everything felt more slow, but I left too many empty shots out there. I blew a lot of shots I normally always make. I’ve got to be a little more focused. If I would have finished half those shots, it would have been a different ballgame.”
Griner was 11-of-22 shooting and came close to her 26.1 scoring average in the previous eight games vs. Indiana.
Guard Diana Taurasi took just five shots, making one, and scored six points, all in the first quarter.
Shatori Kimbrough-Walker started at small forward ahead of Nia Coffey but played just 11 minutes with four points.
Second-year forward Alanna Smith had perhaps the best game of her young career with 14 points and seven rebounds in 20 minutes. She missed much of last season due to injury.
“I went back with my starters, maybe I should have stayed with my bench,” Brondello said. “They gave us really great energy. Bria obviously had a great game. She’s not only our best scorer and creator, but she’s our best defender on the ball. We’re asking a lot of her so we need others to step up and help her.”
Mercury drop four spots in power poll
The Mercury dropped four places to No. 7 in this week's Associated Press WNBA power poll, which included results from the opening weekend but not Tuesday.
Seattle and Los Angeles remained first and second followed by Washington, Chicago, Minnesota and Las Vegas ahead of the Mercury.
Connecticut was No. 8 followed by Atlanta, Dallas, New York and Indiana.
Up next
The Mercury face Las Vegas on Friday and will continue playing every other day through Aug. 16. The Aces (0-1) played Wednesday night vs. Atlanta. They lost their opener 88-86 to Chicago. Las Vegas is without star center Liz Cambage (medical exemption) and injured guard Kelsey Plum and has added forward Angel McCoughtry. The Aces had a 2-1 series edge in 2019.
Reach the reporter at jeff.metcalfe@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8053. Follow him on Twitter @jeffmetcalfe.
Support local journalism: Subscribe to azcentral.com today.
"six" - Google News
July 30, 2020 at 08:41AM
https://ift.tt/3hQgffn
Indiana Fever end six-game losing streak vs. Phoenix Mercury - AZCentral
"six" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3dcBbL9
https://ift.tt/2Wis8la
No comments:
Post a Comment