Mercury win 13th straight game, clinch playoff berth

Stars edge Shock

SEATTLE, July 23, (AP): Diana Taurasi isn’t focused on winning streaks. She’s just trying to get the Phoenix Mercury to keep improving.

Taurasi scored 22 and Candice Dupree added 19 to help the Phoenix Mercury win their 13th straight game and clinch a playoff berth with an 8971 victory over the Seattle Storm on Tuesday night.

Brittney Griner added 17 points, seven rebounds and five blocks for Phoenix (19-3), the first team to win 13 straight since the Storm in 2010 and the third longest win streak in league history. The Mercury are five shy of tying the Los Angeles Sparks’ record of 18 consecutive set in 2001.

Phoenix hopes to win its third WNBA title this year to go with championships in 2007 and 2009.

Phoenix spoiled what the Storm billed as Championship Night with a halftime ceremony featuring trophies displayed from Seattle’s two WNBA titles in 2004 and 2010, the SuperSonics 1979 Larry O’Brien Trophy and the Seahawks Super Bowl XLVIII Lombardi Trophy. Earl Thomas carried the NFL trophy to midcourt while Slick Watts carried the NBA trophy.

The Mercury could have another trophy of their own this year.

Crystal Langhorne had 22 points and nine rebounds to lead Seattle (9-16), which dropped 2-1/2 games behind Los Angeles for the fourth andl final Western Conference playoff berth. The Storm have lost four of their last five and three in a row.

Seattle coach Brian Agler said the Mercury are tough to defend.

Seattle committed 22 turnovers to just 10 for the Mercury, so the mistakes were too many to overcome. Phoenix shot 53.8 percent (35 of 65) from the floor.

The Mercury won the first three meetings at home with the Storm by an average of 17.3 points. Phoenix is 9-2 on the road.

Stars 95, Shock 93 In San Antonio, the San Antonio Stars couldn’t stop Odyssey Sims or Skylar Diggins, but it was acceptable because they knew the Tulsa Shock had no answer for Danielle Robinson in the lane.

Kayla McBride scored 23 points and San Antonio overcame career-highs by Sims and Diggins to beat Tulsa 95-93 on Tuesday night.

Robinson scored 21 points, including a game-winning layup for the Stars (1212).

Danielle Adams added 15 points and East’s Angel McCoughtry, of the Atlanta Dream, dives for a loose ball as West’s Maya Moore, of the Minnesota Lynx, falls during the second half of the WNBA

All-Star basketball game, on July 19, in Phoenix. (AP)

Fowles answered with a layup before Coleman made both free throws to tie it again.

The Sky remained without starters Courtney Vandersloot (knee) and Elena Delle Donne (Lyme disease). Chatman said Delle Donne, who is averaging 21.2 points and hasn’t played since June 25, will ‘’probably’’ return against New York on July 31 if her treatments and workouts go well.

The Fever beat the Sky 82-64 on Thursday in Indianapolis.

Lynx 112, Dream 108 In Minneapolis, Maya Moore put on one of the best scoring displays in the history of the WNBA and it was barely enough to lift Minnesota.

Moore scored 48 points, the second most ever in the league, to help the Lynx beat the Atlanta Dream 112-108 in double-overtime.

She hit 16 of 30 shots from the field, including 7 of 9 from beyond the arc. The 48 points are just short of the record 51 scored by Tulsa’s Riquna Williams last season.

Moore now has scored 30 or more points in 10 games this year, tying the league record with 10 games to play. She also displayed her versatility on Tuesday with 10 rebounds, four assists, two steals and a blocked shot at the end of regulation to force overtime.

She attributed her big night to keeping the game plan simple.

Lindsay Whalen scored 26 points and Rebekkah Brunson added 17 points and 12 rebounds in her first game of the season. The 2013 All-Star missed the first 23 games of the season after undergoing knee surgery.

Sancho Lyttle had 26 points and 12 rebounds, while Tiffany Hayes scored 22 and Angel McCoughtry added 21 for the Dream, who were playing without coach Michael Cooper. The team announced Monday that Cooper is taking a temporary leave of absence and will have surgery this week in Atlanta. The Dream say a full recovery is expected.

The Dream trailed by as much as 14 in the fourth quarter, but they closed regulation on an 18-4 run to force overtime. In the first extra session, Hayes and McCoughtry hit consecutive 3s to put Atlanta on top 95-89. But Moore answered with a 3 of her own and Whalen eventually tied it with a jumper.

In the second overtime, Moore drained two long jump shots as the Lynx pulled out to a five-point lead and Tan White made a pull-up jumper with 38.4 seconds left to ice Minnesota’s fifth straight win.

Moore had 23 points in a fast-paced first half and finished regulation with 40. She’s had to pick up some of the scoring burden in the absence of Seimone Augustus, who missed her eighth straight game with bursitis in her left knee.