MERCURY 81, ATLANTA DREAM 74 Mercury overcome cold shooting to win

The Phoenix Mercury overcame an off shooting night Tuesday to edge Atlanta, 81-74, for its third consecutive victory.

Trailing 55-49 after three quarters, the Mercury went ahead by four points midway through the fourth on a Bria Hartley 3-pointer and Diana Taurasi drive down the lane. Taurasi and Sophie Cunningham did not score from the floor until the closing seconds of the third.

Taurasi hit a key 3-pointer with 2:55 left and Griner completed a 3-point play at 2:29 to help the Mercury (3-2) put away the Dream (2-3).

Phoenix came in averaging a WNBA high 93.5 points but shot just 38.7 percent overall even with the boost from a 32-19 fourth-quarter scoring edge and 4-of-20 from 3-point.

Still five Mercury players reached double-figuring scoring led by Taurasi with 20 plus six rebounds and six assists. Griner had 18, Skylar DigginsSmith and Bria Hartley 12 each and Brianna Turner 10. Hartley now has scored the most points in league history off the bench in the first five games of the season.

Rookie guard Chennedy

Atlanta with 26 points.

Carter

Diggins-Smith keeps Mercury close in first half

led

The Mercury shot 34.1 percent in the first half, making just one of 12 3-point attempts, and trailed 35-33 at halftime.

Atlanta had a six-point lead (33-27) late in the second quarter before a 6-2 finish by the Mercury with DigginsSmith scoring four of her 10 first-half points.

The teams were tied at 15 after the first quarter. Atlanta led most of the second despite 12 first-half turnovers.

Players support Loeffler opponent

WNBA players including the Mercury and Dream wore shirts saying Vote Warnock on Tuesday in support of Raphael Warnock, the U.S. Senate political opponent of Atlanta co-owner Kelly Loeffler.

Loeffler has objected to the WNBA promotion of Black Lives Matter, drawing criticism from players through the league. She also has said she will not sell the Dream.

Dream forward Elizabeth Williams told ESPN that Seattle guard Sue Bird proposed the t-shirt plan.

"For effective change to happen, there has to be policy changes,' Williams told ESPN. "And so if we're going to sit here and talk about wanting justice reform, part of that is making sure that we

Up next

The Mercury will play Chicago on Thursday for the first time since the 2019 WNBA playoffs opening round when the Sky won 105-76, pulling away in the second half when the Mercury were without Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner due to injuries. Chicago also is on a five-game regular season winning streak in the series. The Sky improved to 4-1 Tuesday with an 82-79 win over Dallas. have officials in office that understand that."

"We wanted to make sure we could still keep the focus on our social justice movement, and funny enough, Reverend Warnock is somebody who supports everything that we support and just happens to be running in that seat. So it just worked out really well."

Mercury sixth in AP power poll

The Mercury moved up one place to No. 6 in the latest Associated Press WNBA power poll, announced before Tuesday's games.

Seattle remained No. 1 with Los Angeles dropping three spots to No. 5. In between are Washington, Chicago and Minnesota.

The second half of the poll is Las Vegas, Dallas, Indiana, Atlanta, Connecticut and New York. The Fever moved up three places and the Wings two while the Sun dropped three.

Eight of 12 teams make the playoffs, beginning in mid September.