UNCASVILLE — The Connecticut Sun face the Phoenix Mercury on Sunday for the third time this season. But the Mercury may present a look that Connecticut hasn’t seen yet as the team grapples with a slew of injury concerns down the home stretch before the WNBA takes a three-week break during the Paris Olympics.
Phoenix comes to Mohegan Sun Arena fresh off a 95-86 loss to the Indiana Fever on Friday, and star center Brittney Griner exited that game in the second quarter with a right hip injury. UConn legend Diana Taurasi was sidelined against Indiana too, with a lingering lower-leg issue, and reserve guards Sug Sutton and Charisma Osborne were also ruled out for the Mercury.
The Sun have played Griner and Taurasi each once this season, but never on the court at the same time. Griner missed the Mercury’s first matchup in Connecticut on May 28, which the Sun won 70-47, due to a preseason toe fracture that kept her out for the first 10 games. Taurasi was out when Connecticut beat Phoenix 83-72 on the road July 1. Taurasi had arguably her worst game of the season against the Sun with six points shooting 2-for-14 from the field and 0-for-7 from three, but Griner was a game-changer in the second meeting with a team-high 21 points.
“BG creates her own set of issues because of her size, her ability, her touch, the way she changes the game,” Sun coach Stephanie White said. “We had to change the way we were defending because of what she brought to the table. We had to change our offensive attack because of her ability to alter shots in the paint with what we were looking for.
“We go through what our coverages are gonna be and what things they might run if she’s in the game, and then we’ll go through what it looks like when she’s not. … We have to go through all of it, and we can because our team is a veteran group and can absorb a lot of information.”
Connecticut doesn’t have anyone who can match Griner’s size and length at 6-foot-9, so her presence on the floor could become a make-or-break factor for the Sun. The nine-time All-Star has appeared in just 13 games this season but is averaging 18.5 points on 56.9% shooting from the field plus 6.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists.
“It opens it up a lot (if Griner is out) with your ability to get to the rim and score, to get to the foul line. She’s an intimidating factor just because of her size and ability to be a shot-alterer,” White said. “Now, you can’t concede because she’s not on the floor, so I think our decision-making is still really important to our ability to get to the foul line and knock them down, and it makes Phoenix a little more versatile on the defensive end. We have to be reading the switches … and then defensively for us it makes them more versatile because they play that five-out and read and react so well off one another.
“Our attention to detail will need to be that much greater.”
Phoenix coach Nate Tibbetts said Friday that Taurasi is close to returning to play, though the team may choose to be cautious with the 42-year old star as she prepares to compete in a record sixth Olympic Games with Team USA in two weeks. In her 20th WNBA season Taurasi is still averaging 16.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists, though she has appeared in just 19 games after missing the four of the last five due to injury.
The last time the Mercury played at Mohegan Sun Arena, the Sun held them to the lowest single-game 3-point percentage in WNBA history hitting just 1-for-27. Phoenix lives and dies by its outside shooting with nearly a third of its field goal attempts coming from beyond the arc, and the team currently ranks third in the league logging 27 3-point attempts per game. Guard Kahleah Copper, also an Olympian, leads the Mercury averaging 23.5 points per game, and she is the team’s most consistent long-range shooter outside of Taurasi averaging 2.2 3-pointers per game on 6.5 attempts.
White attributes much of the Sun’s dominant performance in their first win over Phoenix to a uniquely poor shooting night by the Mercury, but Connecticut was almost as effective defending the perimeter in the second meeting. The Mercury went 3-for-17 from outside and gave up 14 points off turnovers, and the Sun also dominated the boards out-rebounding Phoenix 37-18.
“They’re such a good 3-point shooting team, so that doesn’t happen very often,” White said. “What we have to do is make sure we’re not giving them the wide-open rhythm ones. We’ve got to force them to be shooting off the move, shooting with a hand in their face, just make them hit the tough looks and not give up the easy ones.”
How to watch
Site: Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville
Team records: Sun 17-5; Mercury 12-11
Time: 1 p.m., Sunday
Last meeting: 83-72, Sun; July 1, 2023 in Phoenix
TV: ABC
Streaming: ESPN+
