The Phoenix Mercury squandered a possibility to tug even with the Atlanta Dream for second within the WNBA standings on Saturday following an upset 87-84 highway loss to the Connecticut Sun (11-31).
With solely two video games remaining within the common season, the end result, which snapped a six-game profitable streak, might have a big influence on the Mercury’s playoff outlook.
Phoenix dropped to fourth within the standings, a half-game behind the Las Vegas Aces (27-14), who’ve gained 13 consecutive video games and play the Chicago Sky (10-31) of their subsequent two video games.
With probabilities slim that the Mercury (27-15) transfer up earlier than the postseason begins, they might be left with the hardest attainable path to the WNBA Finals.
The defending champion New York Liberty (25-17) sit at No. 5 and loom because the Mercury’s likeliest first-round opponent. If Phoenix will get previous New York, the 1-seed Minnesota Lynx (32-9) could be its most possible semifinal matchup.
If that is the trail that awaits the Mercury, they will look again at Saturday’s loss and marvel what might have been.
Phoenix opened at sportsbooks as a 10.5-point pregame favourite and led at halftime, 50-47, after an enormous second quarter. For the sport, it made six extra threes than Connecticut, and MVP candidate Alyssa Thomas, who spent her first 11 seasons with the Solar earlier than being traded to the Mercury this previous offseason, completed two rebounds shy of a triple-double, ending with 14 factors, 10 assists, eight rebounds and two steals.
The WNBA playoffs start subsequent Sunday, Sep. 14. As an alternative of getting into the ultimate week of the common season with an incredible alternative to earn the No. 2 seed, the Mercury’s gorgeous loss to the Solar has put them on observe for a treacherous playoff path.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘1324276914788316’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
