Moriah Jefferson, Tiffany Mitchell will miss Sun’s morning clash with Mercury

Early on Sunday, the Connecticut Sun will go into their morning clash vs. the Phoenix Mercury with guards Moriah Jefferson (Right Ankle) and Tiffany Mitchell (Left Hip) both ruled out.

In the offseason, Jefferson was traded by the Mercury to the Sun in exchange for Rebecca Allen. An important player for Phoenix in her lone season in the Valley, she played 39 games (36 starts) and averaged 10.5 points, 3.6 assists and 2.0 rebounds per game. Now as a Sun, the Texas native had 2.1 points, 0.7 assists and 0.2 rebounds per game in nine games before being out since June 12 with a right ankle injury.

Appearing in all 22 games this season for Connecticut, Mitchell will miss her first of the year as she is dealing with an injury to her left hip. Like Jefferson, Mitchell was traded in the offseason to the Sun but by the Minnesota Lynx after just one season there. The South Carolina product spent the majority of her career with the Indiana Fever for seven seasons (2016-22). She is averaging 5.0 points, 1.5 assists and 0.8 assists per game with the Sun.

Connecticut has been one of the best teams in the league this season with a 17-5 record. In a battle between the top two teams in the WNBA, the Sun faced the No. 1 seeded New York Liberty on Wednesday where the Sun suffered a 71-68 nail-biting loss. Needing a 3-pointer to tie it, Tyasha Harris fired a last-gasp shot that was blocked by Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu before the buzzer.

As for the Mercury, they were down by 31 against the Indiana Fever on Wednesday before they shrunk the deficit to as small as four, falling 95-86. With just seven players healthy, Brittney Griner went down early in the game with a right hip injury and now have five players on their injury report for Sunday’s showdown against Connecticut.

Tip-off between the Mercury and Sun begins on Sunday at 10 a.m. PT.