Mercury top Storm for coach Nygaard’s first WNBA victory
After the Phoenix Mercury dropped their season opener to the Las Vegas Aces last week, they were left looking for a spark.
Enter Brianna Turner and Diamond DeShields — both fresh from finishing their overseas commitments. Turner and DeShields filled in their roles defensively and helped showcase a more complete effort in the 97-77 win against the Seattle Storm on Wednesday at Footprint Center.
Head coach Vanessa Nygaard earned her first career WNBA win as a head coach.
“I’m just happy to see our team made progress and also for myself as a coach, I felt like I learned a lot in the game. To have our two players that were gone for most of the preseason back and have them back in the rotation, it definitely wasn’t perfect, but it was good to have some success. Obviously, we have some offensive firepower, and I thought our defense was better,” Nygaard said.
The Mercury (1-1) got more from their starting five with four of the five hitting double figures in the game. Tina Charles led with 22 points and 11 rebounds, making her the second player in WNBA history to score 20 or more points with 10 or more rebounds with four different franchises.
“I think that first game we were all probably a little bit uncomfortable, maybe a little nervous, and it’s hard to play basketball that way when you’re unsure of yourself,” Mercury veteran Diana Taurasi said. “I think today, we just came with a different attitude individually, you could feel it when we walked into the arena collectively. When you bring that type of focus, things just seem to go your way more, so I think we did a better job of that today.”
Adding in Turner to clean up the defensive part of the game allowed Charles to open herself up more and settle into her offensive game. Charles launched into a 14-point third quarter and hit the long range game with two 3s. Charles continued to use her size in the post and muscled her way to the basket when necessary.
“Tina is a great player and when plays need to be made, great players figure out how to make plays and find the ball,” Nygaard said. The other piece of that is Dee does a great job of getting Tina a touch when Tina needs a touch. She’s a very savvy point guard and can find people when they need it.”
Taurasi finished with four assists, but also added 15 points of her own, including four 3-pointers. Taurasi kept the energy going late in the game when she was knocked down by Storm guard Briann January in the Mercury’s zone with a few minutes left in the game. As Taurasi was helped up by her teammates, January was pushed and then threw the ball at Taurasi’s back. Both players received a technical foul.
The Storm played without post depth with forward Breanna Stewart ruled out before the game due to health protocols. Guard Epiphanny Prince also missed from health protocols, and center Mercedes Russell was out from a non-basketball injury.
In the first quarter, the Storm nearly took another hit to their depth when guard Jewell Loyd exited the game at 5:16 in the first quarter with an apparent injury.
Loyd returned with 19.9 seconds left in the first quarter after being evaluated.
Loyd continued to expand her presence for the Storm with a buzzer-beater 3 to end the first quarter and give the Storm an 18-16 lead. She finished with 26 points.