Well, there you have it. The Mercury drop a game to a sub .500 team and then come back the very next day and smoke the league's best team. Or really I should say the team with the best record in the league because all things considered I don't think the Fever are really all that strong.

That's a topic for another night though. The Fever came in missing their best player (or at least their top scorer) in Katie Douglas and having already wrapped up the best record in the East seem to be in cruise control. They came into this game having lost 3 of their last 4 and they certainly didn't look like a championship caliber team tonight.

You combine their lethargic play with extremely hot shooting by the Mercury (59% FG / 56% 3PG) and this game really was never very competitive. I would like to give the Mercury full credit for a great road win but watching (and in some cases re-watching) this game I just can't do it. 

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The Mercury lost another game to a sub .500 team last night in Detroit who were without their best player, Katie Smith. Once again the team started slow and once again Coach Gaines used a variety of line ups which might have contributed to an horrendous 19 turnovers and some equally bad defensive rotations.

Coach Gaines might be thinking about getting ready for the playoffs and giving his stars some extra rest or he might just be experimenting with the variety of players he now as available to him (I don't understand how Tangela Smith and Le'Coe Willingham have far more minutes in this game than DeWanna Bonner and Nicole Ohlde and yet in the closing minutes of a tight game it is Ohlde and Bonner who are on the floor).

Still, it was a winnable game in the final minutes. The Mercury were down 92-93 with 2:37 left in the game before giving up a wide open 3 to Deanna Nolan in transition followed by an uncontested layup from Alexis Hornbuckle on a back door cut and that essentially sealed the game. The Mercury missed two open looks at three's that could have made the difference but you just can't count and making those big shots, especially on the road, to save your bacon. You win close games by getting stops.

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Penny Taylor's ability to protect the ball while driving to the rim was impressive (not depicted in this photo). August 29, 2009. Phoenix, AZ. Photo by Max Simbron

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Last night, I took the opportunity to attend my first ever Mercury game with our own Phoenix Stan. By now you may (or may not) know that I have never been a fan of the WNBA but that I committed to giving the league a chance this season. So it was in that spirit that I headed to central Phoenix to watch the only professional basketball team from the great state of Arizona to take home a championship trophy.  At the game I saw a lot of what I expected and a few things that surprised me and not in a bad way. So the question is, after my experience watching women run the floor of the US Airways Center, do I consider myself a fan of the Mercury/WNBA?  Well, lets dive a little further into my experience at the arena before I answer that.

I’m going to start with some of the positive things that I saw during the game:

The first was the energy present in a stadium that was not even half full. Something that is never going to come through while watching a game on TV is the energy of the crowd that attends these games. Obviously it doesn’t even compare to a Suns crowd, but the fans that were there were true Phoenix Mercury fans. There was one dude behind press row who not only knew the names of all of the players and coaches but of the officials, too! He was constantly calling them out by name to argue with every call they made (that went against the Mercury anyway). Another little girl (couldn’t have been older than 6) got so freaking excited at the prospect of getting a PHX Mercury t-shirt that she absolutely would not stop screaming at the top of her amazing little lungs until the timeout was over and play resumed…my ears are still ringing a bit. I was truly amazed at the hardcore Mercury fans that showed up to cheer on this team.

The second was the competitive spirit of the game. Okay, so this didn’t necessarily come as a surprise but the players more than met my expectations. Two instances really stand out to me. First, in the opening quarter Penny came into the game and got the ball at the top of the key with the Sun defender all over her  - she took exception to the aggressive D and swung her elbow high and hit the defender right in the chest…she got the foul called on her but you can bet she got a little extra room the next time down. The second happened at the very end of the game when Cappie stole the ball on an inbounds pass (up 9 with less than 15 seconds left) and after scoring the final bucket of the game proceeded to wink in the direction of Lindsay Whalen and the Sun bench…good stuff! It was a very competitive game and was enjoyable watching the back and forth between one of the best teams in the league and another team fighting for playoff position.

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The Phoenix Mercury used a team effort to get by the Connecticut Sun. August 29, 2009. Photo by Max Simbron

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Thinking more about this game and looking over the box scores and what not, there's really not anything else I have to say that wasn't covered in the game thread. It was one of those games. The Mercury are the more talented team and were expected to win and they did. It was impressive how balanced the attack was on a night when the shots weren't falling easily and it was a game where the defense really stepped it up for a couple of key stretches.

In fact, the Sun went scoreless for the final 3:25 of the game as the Mercury turned 3 point lead into an 11 point victory with an 8-0 run to close the game(did you follow all those numbers? good.)

The Sun are a decent team but like many of the second tier they don't have the depth that Phoenix and LA and a healthy Seattle posses. To make matters worse they were missing one of their better players, Asjha Jones along with Erin Phillips.

The Mercury seem to have righted the ship and are working their way into playoff form. These teams hoovering around .500 really shouldn't pose a threat and yet at the same time they all have a couple of really good players. For the Sun of course the big name is Lindsay Whalen who can flat out ball.

While I didn't see the same level of thug edge that Mr. B Shoals commented on, this entire Connecticut team does seem to mirror their coaches orneriness. Or perhaps they were just really pissed about getting run out of their own building when these two teams met a few weeks ago.

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Phoenix Mercury point guard Temeka Johnson is a leader on and off the court. Phoenix, AZ. August 29, 2009. Photo by Max Simbron

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Phoenix Mercury point guard Temeka Johnson is having a fantastic season on the court. Her ability to break down her defender and create opportunities for her teammates has placed her 5th in the league in assists behind only the biggest names in the game. With her Night of HOPE event she is now looking to bring that same spirit of giving that has marked all aspects of her career to her new home city of Phoenix.

Just moments after draining a late three pointer to help the Mercury earn their 20th win of  the season, Temeka Johnson went up stairs to a suite in the US Airways center to introduce Meek's HOPE Foundation to local non-profit leaders.

"My goals for tonight was to make people aware of the HOPE Foundation in general. I just want to be able to give hope and give as much back to people as people in the community give to us," explain Johnson about the event.

Meek's HOPE Foundation has primarily been focused on helping children through adopt-a-school programs and on promoting education through her scholarship fund. Temeka follows in the footsteps of her grandmother, Jewel Johnson who was lifelong educator.

The foundation has previously worked in Temeka's native state of Louisiana and her previous WNBA home city of Los Angeles. Since being traded to the Mercury in the off season, Temeka has been looking for an opportunity to learn more about specific needs in the Phoenix community. The Night of HOPE event was designed as a "listening session" to discuss potential areas of focus for her charitable work.

Carolyn Sechler, a CPA who works with over 300 non-profit agencies in the Phoenix area, was on hand to lend her expertise on the local situation. When she explained to Temeka that the average age of all homeless people in the Valley of the Sun was 9 years old, the pain and determination became instantly visible on Johnson's face.

While specific plans will come later, there's no doubt that the Phoenix community will benefit from having Temeka Johnson on its side.

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[Note by Phoenix Stan, 08/29/09 11:15 PM MST ]

The Mercury pulled this one out with another late run giving them a 95-84 win and moving the team to 20-9, just a half game back of the Indian Fever (20-8). The Fever lost for the second time this season to the Monarchs who hold the worst record in the league. Go figure.

More on this game tomorrow, but I was very impressed with the balance on the offensive end. The Mercury had 5 players in double figures and 2 more with 9 point and 1 more with 7. They put up 95 points in a game where they were only 4-16 (25%) from behind the arc. Cappie had an off night shooting and over all the ball didn't seem to want to fly readily through the net. And yet they finish with 95 points. Impressive.

On the defensive end, the Merc once again came out slow and gave up a lot of points in the paint. The Sun shot 55% in the first period and score 35 points but the Mercury clamped down and held the Sun to 23% in the 2nd period and 35% for the night.

The combination of Smith, Ohdle, Willingham and Bonner did a much better job against the Connecticut front line and the Mercury even had a slight edge (43-41) on the glass.

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When they announced before the game that Candace Parker wasn't going to play due to personal reasons (sick child?) the entire complexion changed. It's like playing the Lakers without Kobe or the Spurs without Duncan. Sure, they are still good teams but it's just not the same.

Then the Mercury come out using far more of the rover zone defense then we've seen all year and the Sparks pound the ball inside to Lisa Leslie who was left in isolation against Tangela Smith. In 6:22 she was 7 for 7 for 15 points and the Sparks jumped out to a 34 - 19 advantage in the first quarter.

I am not sure if Coach Gaines was thinking that he would try and bait the Sparks into a high scoring game or if he wanted to see if he could tire Leslie out early by giving her so many looks but the rope-a-dope seemed like it was going to back fire as the Sparks lead by 18 points at one point.

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The last time the Phoenix Mercury saw Lisa Leslie she was being helped off the floor in the 1st quarter with a severely sprained knee. Leslie is now back from injury and averaging 15 points and 7 rebounds in the final year of her great career.

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Must win games in the regular season are one of those cliches invented by sports writers looking to hype something that often doesn't need to be hyped. When the 1st place Mercury (18-9) face the 3rd place Sparks (14-13) there won't be a playoff spot on the line. The Mercury have already clinched and the Sparks - who are a smoking hot with 6 wins in a row - are well on their way to beating out San Antonio or Minnesota for a post season birth.

What makes this game a must win for the Mercury goes beyond the first round of the playoffs. This is a game that very well could determine who comes out of the West to play for a ring.

A win Thursday in LA against the hottest team in the league will send a clear message that Phoenix is still the team to beat. Coming off a disappointing 4 and 4 stretch in which the team has lacked rhythm and struggled on both ends of the floor, the Mercury need to prove to themselves that they are as good as they think they are. It's a message that can only be sent with a win in LA.

Not surprisingly Coach Gaines doesn't see it this way, "Every game is a big game now because you're trying to get ready for the playoffs. You're trying to get yourself into the habit of winning. Every game now is our money game for the rest of the year."

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