Mercury prevail in hard-fought battle, extend winning streak to 3 with 83-80 victory over Mystics

PHOENIX – Diana Taurasi and Kahleah Copper both scored 20 points as they fought tooth-and-nail to pull out an 83-80 victory over the Washington Mystics on Thursday.

Facing her former team in the Mystics for the first time since signing with Phoenix (3-1) in the offseason, Natasha Cloud recorded her 11th points/assists double-double in her career with 14 points and 10 assists. This moves her to sole possession of eight all-time in WNBA regular season history, passing Shannon Johnson and former Mercury Skylar Diggins-Smith.

Ariel Atkins led the Mystics (0-5) with 16 points, and Julie Vanloo finished with 15. Washington outrebounded the Mercury 36-34 as they continue to search for their first win of the 2024 WNBA season.

Mystics Put Up Tough Fight, Mercury Prevail

Without WNBA superstar Elena Delle Donne this season due to her taking a break away from basketball, the Mystics were winless going into the matchup with a 0-4 record. Amidst their struggles, however, Washington turned an early 10-4 deficit into just being down 22-20 at the end of the first quarter.

Not slowing down after scoring 75 points combined in her past two games against the Las Vegas Aces and Atlanta Dream, Copper got off to a hot start with 13 points. What was an Achilles heal early on, though, was that Phoenix turned over the ball seven times, a concern that head coach Nate Tibbetts emphasized they needed to clean up.

“Part of the reason why we were good in Vegas was because we took care of it [the ball],” Tibbetts said. “We didn’t do a good job tonight to start and we got better as the game went on, but we have to be better than 17 turnovers.”

The Mystics would eventually take the lead 30-26 in the second frame as they were shooting 7-for-16 (43.8%) from three. The turnovers started to even out after Washington passed right to a Mercury player multiple times, resulting in them having more than Phoenix before halftime, 14-12.

Ending the second quarter up 43-40, the Mercury grabbed the lead once more courtesy of two threes by Copper and Taurasi. Phoenix shot 14-for-32 (43.8%) from the field and 6-for-17 (35.3%) from three before the end of the half.

Bouncing back after a 3-for-13 shooting night against the Aces on Saturday, Taurasi found her scoring touch vs. the Mystics and Cloud praised her 20-year, WNBA superstar teammate.

“There’s going to be nights when she is on and there’s going to be nights where she is off, but that belief in her is still there every single night,” Cloud said on Taurasi. “I told her, ‘Let that mother f***** fly.’ Like I don’t care, shoot that and you miss, shoot that s*** again. That is just a testament to who she is. DT was really great for us leadership-wise tonight when we needed that extra spark, that extra voice in huddles and on the court. I think that allowed her to get going herself too.”