Mercury emphasizing defensive improvement
With each game counting for 4.5 percent of a shortened 22-game regular season, WNBA teams cannot afford much of a losing streak.
So for the Phoenix Mercury, a game Wednesday against the Indiana Fever -- sandwiched between a loss to Los Angeles and a game Friday vs. Las Vegas -- is as close to a must win as a team will ever get in the second game of a season.
The Mercury have won nine of the last 10 meetings vs. Indiana dating back to August 2016 including three last season by an average of almost 16 points. That gap still seems substantial on paper, particularly because the Fever are hard pressed to defend 6-9 center Brittney Griner.
But Griner had five turnovers and a minus 25 rating Saturday against Los Angeles, far from the kind of start she wanted in her most public pursuit of her first league most valuable player award.
“It was a slap in the face,” Griner said of the Sparks putting a 30-8 thirdquarter hurting on the Mercury to break open a close game. “It was definitely a get your butt up out of bed and get to school and when I mean back to practice. It lit a fire underneath our asses to come out here and get going because it’s going to be a long short season if we come out like that and not play defense the way we can play.
“That game let us know we need a ton of work on defense. I’m not worried about offense. Anybody on any given night can put up big numbers. It’s talking, being active. We have to make our own noise, our own spark,” playing with no spectators. “It starts on defense.”
Griner averaged 23.6 points against Indiana last year while shooting 52.5 percent from the floor and was more than either 6-3 Natalie Achonwa or 6-7 Teaira McCowan, then a rookie, could handle. The Fever have added 6-4 Lauren Cox via the draft, but she is coming off COVID-19 and did not play in the opener.
Indiana also is without guard Erica Wheeler due to COVID with the positive cases delaying the team’s arrival in Bradenton, Florida, to begin training at the WNBA bubble site at IMG Academy.
The Mercury had 10 offensive rebounds and a 32-31 advantage on the boards vs. LA, but that was not nearly enough to offset 27 turnovers resulting in 38 Sparks points.
Starting small forward Nia Coffey played just nine minutes while Bria Hartley saw 28 minutes off the bench.
“I’m still trying to work out this team,” said coach Sandy Brondello, who will finalize her starting lineup for Indiana on Wednesday. “We have so many new players and trying to find chemistry. It’s kind of hard. I played a lot of the small (perimeter) rotation because I thought that was the best matchup for now, and Indiana goes small too. Only time will tell.”
If Brondello starts 5-8 Hartley with 6-0 Diana Taurasi and 5-9 Skylar Diggins-Smith then the perimeter backups are 6-1 Coffey, 5-9 Shatori WalkerKimbrough and 6-1 Sophie Cunningham.
Walker-Kimbrough had eight points in her Mercury debut, going 2-of-3 from 3-point range, a performance that went unnoticed because of the final margin.
The Mercury had two days off between games 1-2. After that, they will play every other day until early September when they again have two days off between games 20-21 in a 22-game regular season.