Cambage final call

Aussie onslaught in WNBL playoffs

IT will be Aussie against Aussie in the first round of the WNBA playoffs, with the Liz Cambage-led Dallas Wings taking on a Phoenix Mercury squad loaded with Opals.

The sudden-death game will be played in Phoenix tomorrow (Hobart time).

The 203cm-tall Cambage has been the most dominant player in the WNBA, averaging a league-high 23 points and adding 9.6 rebounds a game, including a WNBArecord 53 points last month and 43 points last week.

She has fellow Australian Cayla George in Dallas after the 29-year-old’s mid-season switch.

The Mercury are coached by Australian Olympic coach Sandy Brondello and include Leilani Mitchell, Stephanie Talbot and player development and performance director Penny Taylor.

The Mercury are expecting a titanic game.

“Our only focus is on Dallas,” Brondello said on Sunday after the Mercury beat the New York Liberty 96-85 in Sunday’s regularseason finale to secure the fifth seed.

“That’s a tough team and a team we’ve lost to but we’re playing well, so we have to go in with that confidence as well.”

The Wings lost 84-68 against the top-seeded Seattle Storm in their regularseason finale on Sunday.

Dallas snuck into the playoffs as the eighth and final seeds. Cambage will go head-to-head with one of the WNBA’s best centres, Brittney Griner, in the firstround clash.

The Mercury, who also have veteran Diana Taurasi, won two of the three regular-season meetings this season, although the Wings were victorious 101- 72 in the most recent encounter on July 10. AAP