Mercury will open playoffs at home
Griner scores 31 to lead rout of Sun
Maybe the Phoenix Mercury can make some noise in the WNBA playoffs after all.
By winning their first game in 10 tries against one of the league’s top three teams Friday night, the Mercury (17-16) clinched a home playoff game in the single-elimination first round. They dominated Connecticut 86-66 at Talking Stick Resort Arena for their second consecutive win with a new starting lineup and showed the kind of life that helped them reach the WNBA semifinals last season.
Phoenix completes the regular season at home against Atlanta on Sunday, then will shift to Arizona State’s Wells Fargo Arena on Wednesday, due to a scheduling conflict, for its playoff opener.
In 2016, the Mercury won two playoff single-elimination road games and did not see the home court until the third game of the semifinals against Minnesota.
Guards Leilani Mitchell and Yvonne Turner again were in the Phoenix starting lineup like during a win over Seattle
on Sunday. Mitchell scored in double figures (11) against the Storm, with Turner contributing 13 in the win over the Sun, which crushed the Mercury 94-66 on Aug. 20.
The star of the night, though, was 6-9 Brittney Griner, the WNBA scoring leader, who after missing eight games with injury in July and August is returning to the league Most Valuable Player form she showed earlier in the season.
Griner had 20 points at halftime on the way to 31 with eight rebounds and five assists. The Mercury are 10-1 when Griner scores 25 or more points and 5-0 when she cracks 30.
"I'm getting back into the groove," Griner said. "It felt good, especially after we went out there (to Connecticut) and turned the ball over so many times and gave them so many easy buckets. Not taking anything away from them, they're a great team, but you can't give them that many turnovers like we did."
Mercury coach Sandy Brondello added: "Obviously we focused a lot on getting the ball in to BG (Griner). We thought that was how we could exploit them. It worked well for us. Just having poise on offense, not trying to play at their speed, controlling the tempo. Trying to get their post players in early foul trouble helped. Defensively, we kept them out of transition. This is a great team that's been dominant all season long, especially in the transition phase. It's good momentum for us."
Phoenix has now won consecutive games for the first time since late July. Connecticut fell to 21-12, losing its only appearance here. The Mercury now have one more win than in the 2016 regular season.
In one of their better halves of the season, the Mercury led 41-24 after limiting the Sun to 10 points in the first quarter.
Connecticut’s 6-6 Jonquel Jones, the WNBA rebounding leader, and Alyssa Thomas were in foul trouble early, helping 6-9 Griner to dominate in the first half with 20 points, half of those on free throws.
The Sun scored the first seven points of the second quarter to trim a 21-10 deficit only to be outscored 18-5 over the final six-plus minutes. Griner scored six straight points by going strong to the rim (two on free throws after being fouled), then fed Diana Taurasi for a layup as Phoenix built its lead back to double digits.
Near the end of the half, Griner whipped a cross-court pass high that the 5-5 Mitchell pulled down on the wing and converted into a driving layup.
The Sun shot just 34.4 percent in the first half, with Jones going scoreless and nabbing only three rebounds. She had 22 boards against Washington on Tuesday. Jones finished with five points and nine boards.
The Washington Mystics improved to 18-15 Friday by beating Seattle in overtime. The Mercury still can tie the Mystics and via tiebreaker earn the No. 5 seed in the playoffs but must get a win on Sunday combined with a Washington loss at Minnesota.