Mercury grab final playoff spot
Phoenix earns seventh straight trip to playoffs with win over Atlanta
Brittney Griner scored 21 points and the Phoenix Mercury grabbed the final WNBA playoff spot with a 65-58 victory over the Atlanta Dream on Thursday night.
It’s the seventh consecutive postseason berth for Phoenix (15-15).
Griner, the only player in the league averaging over 20 points per game, finished 7-for12 from the field and made 7 of 8 free throws. She had eight rebounds and four blocks.
The Dream got within three on Renee Montgomery’s 3-pointer with 21.1 seconds left, but two free throws each from Briann January and Griner sealed the win.
Atlanta (7-23), in the WNBA cellar, scored only six points in the first quarter before closing within one with 4:36 left in the third. But Griner scored six straight points late in the period for an eight-point edge.
The league’s all-time leading scorer, Diana Taurasi, played in her third straight game after missing all but one of the Mercury’s first 26 games after back surgery.
Montgomery led Atlanta with 20 points.
Sparks 87, Fever 83: Chelsea Gray scored a career-high 30 points and tied a franchise record with seven 3-pointers, leading Los Angeles over Indiana.
Wings 88, Sky 83: Arike Ogunbowale scored eight of her 35 points in the fourth quarter and Dallas snapped a four-game losing skid with a victory over Chicago. The Sky (18-13), who are playoff-bound for the first time in two seasons, have lost consecutive games after winning three in a row.