Mercury look to continue winning ways against Valkyries

Two of the WNBA's teams that shoot the most 3-pointers will need all guns blazing when they meet for a third time as the Phoenix Mercury visit the Golden State Valkyries on Tuesday night in San Francisco.

The fourth-place Mercury (20-13) enter the contest 2 1/2 games ahead of the seventh-place Valkyries (18-16) on the strength of two earlier head-to-head wins, one in each team's arena.

Phoenix outscored Golden State 33-27 from beyond the 3-point arc in an 86-77 home win in June, then got a free throw from Alyssa Thomas with one second remaining to pull out a 78-77 victory on the road in July after the Valkyries' Janelle Salaun had tied the game on a jumper with 6.8 seconds left.

Each team has made a total of 23 3-pointers in the two matchups, which is even higher than their impressive full-season averages that rank among the WNBA leaders. The Valkyries are second to the New York Liberty in made threes per game (9.7), while the Mercury aren't far behind at 9.2.

Defending the arc played a big role in each team's latest outing on Sunday, when the Mercury won 85-82 on the road against the Seattle Storm while the Valkyries were getting thumped 79-63 at home by the Atlanta Dream.

Phoenix's win was made possible by holding the Storm to just four 3-pointers in 22 attempts. The Mercury are 16-4 this season when holding the opposition to eight threes or fewer.

Phoenix coach Nate Tibbetts applauded seldom-used reserves Lexi Held and Kitija Laksa for their contributions to a defensive effort that limited Seattle stars Skylar Diggins and Brittney Sykes to a combined 0-for-5 effort on 3-point shots. They were helping fill a void for the injured Monique Akoa Makani.

"(They) came in and were productive and super-competitive," Tibbetts said. "That's part of being a professional. They're a big part of what we do, even though they're not playing. You never know when stuff like this is gonna happen. They both stepped up."

Akoa Makani (knee) is listed as probable for Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Valkyries struggled from beyond the arc against the Dream. They shot just 7-for-29 from deep after entering the contest on a four-game winning streak in which they made 12, 13, 15 and 14 3-point.

It was a lesson learned for the expansion club, according to long-range shooter Cecilia Zandalasini.

"We cannot rely only on our 3-point percentages," she said. "We've got to do better when teams are so physical with us."