Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter are the league's highest scoring teammates at a combined 48.9 points per game. Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images

The Phoenix Mercury’s defense of their 2007 WNBA Championship definitely got off to a rocky start. The champs opened the season with four straight losses and finished the first month with a 2-6 record, which planted them near the bottom of the Western Conference standings.

What’s wrong with the Mercury?
Are the defending champs really 0-4?
Wow, what a rough start for new coach Corey Gaines.

These were all common questions and statements made about Phoenix throughout May and most of June.

However, the Mercury have begun to rise out of the cellar. They have won four out of their last five games to increase their record to 6-7 and while they are still looking up at four teams ahead of them in the standings, they are beginning to resemble the team that captured the title a year ago.

Phoenix was 7-7 last season before going 16-4 down the stretch to finish the season with the best record in the Western Conference at 23-11. For a team known for its speed, the Mercury keep stumbling out of the gate.

“We’re a notorious slow starting team and that’s something that’s been our downfall in past seasons, but we’ve been able to kind of recoup from it,” said Diana Taurasi. “I think things are coming along little bit better, we’re starting to get used to each other, Coach Gaines is getting used to us and it’s a work in progress.”

So what is the cause of the slow start this season?

The Mercury lost head coach Paul Westhead

There is a new voice in the huddle for the Mercury this season as Gaines – an assistant coach the last two seasons – has taken over as the head coach of the team.

“I think Coach Gaines has been great,” said Taurasi. “He’s actually surprised me with how good of a coach he is. I always knew he had it in him from being an assistant, he talked to the guards a lot, so we knew his knowledge, but his X’s and O’s are amazing. He draws up plays in a second, at end of games, and he gets us in a really good position.”

While his knowledge is unquestioned, the players felt – and Gaines admitted – that he was calling too many plays early in the season. Prior to their game against Connecticut on June 18, Gaines told the team he would not call any plays unless there was a free throw being taken. He put the responsibility on the players. And they responded by scoring 102 points and beating the team with best record in the league.

“The fact that he did call so many plays didn’t allow us to run and we were thinking a lot more and thus became a half-court team, which we are not,” said Cappie Pondexter. “We don’t work on being a half -court team every day like some other teams do. Now we are pushing the ball and I’m excited.”

Penny Taylor is not playing for the Mercury this season

Taylor decided not to return to the Mercury for the first part of this season as she prepares to play for the Australian National Team in Beijing. That decision left a giant hole in the Mercury lineup. Last season, Taylor was the Mercury’s second-leading scorer (17.8 ppg) and rebounder (6.3 rpg) and was fourth in assists (2.9 apg).

“Penny is one of the top five players in the world, let’s not kid ourselves,” said Gaines. “I didn’t expect anybody to come in and fill her shoes, so it's one of those things where you have to get it (done) by committee.”

“If you try to replace Penny, you’ll fall short,” Taurasi added. “We brought in some really good players that bring something different to the table. We love Penny. I love Penny, but Penny’s not here. Without a doubt we miss her, but you can’t worry about things you can’t control.”

Taurasi and Pondexter – the top two scorers in the WNBA – have both stepped up to help fill the void left by Taylor. Taurasi has upped her scoring from 19.2 to 24.7 points per game, while Pondexter’s average has jumped from 17.2 to 24.2.

“Diana and Cappie will carry us, because this year we don’t have Penny,” Gaines said. “We had a three-headed dragon last year. This year we have a two-headed dragon with other dragons coming on. But it’s going to take time.”

There are many new faces in Phoenix this season

Taylor is not the only player missing from the Mercury squad that won the title a year ago. The 2008 roster features just six returning players to go along with six new faces and their new head coach.

Le’coe Willingham, who was signed as a free agent during the offseason, has stepped into the starting lineup for Taylor, where she is joined by returning starters Taurasi, Pondexter, Kelly Miller and Tangela Smith. The Mercury bench features just two players from last year’s team with Kelly Mazzante and Jennifer Derevjanik. The remaining reserves are all newcomers, including veteran Barbara Farris and rookies LaToya Pringle, Yuko Oga, Allie Quigley and Brooke Smith.

“Every game is a better game for me and I’m getting more and more comfortable,” Willingham said. “It’s been a process but I’m definitely getting so much more comfortable with these ladies and they’re becoming more comfortable with me and figuring out my game and me knowing their games.”

Tangela Smith, who joined the Mercury last season, knows that there is a learning curve associated with the Mercury system. She said she finally felt comfortable in the run-and-gun style near midseason, which coincided with the team hitting its stride for its impressive stretch run.

“We started off slow last year and we did get a lot of new players this year, so it’s going to take a good minute to get it together,” she said. “Last year we started to get really good after the All-Star break. I don’t want it to take that long this year, but it does take time.”

The Mercury’s up-tempo system takes time to get used to

While the learning curve for the newcomers is easy to understand, Gaines said that there is also a period of adjustment for the returning players. He believes that the Mercury are hurt more than other teams by the lack of a training camp with their complete roster because their style of play is so different than what the players are running with their teams overseas.

“If you go somewhere else and play, and you walk the ball up the court, and you’re using 18 seconds of the shot clock, we’re not doing that,” he said. “We’re using a five- or six-second shot clock. So it takes time here to readjust to that different type of play.”

“Part of the reason for our slowish starts, I think, is that it takes a little while to get back into our offensive system,” Taurasi added. “It takes a month or so to get used to it, and unfortunately, that month just so happens to be the first month of the regular season. Most of the teams are in a similar boat, of course, so it’s no excuse, but for us it just seems to take a little longer.”

The schedule has not been kind to the champs

With the championship target on their back, the Mercury’s title defense began with a tough stretch of games to open the season. First there was the opening day matchup with the Los Angeles Sparks. Although they finished with the worst record in the league last year, L.A. is considered by many to be championship contenders this season with the return of Lisa Leslie and the addition of Candace Parker. In addition to the tough opponent, Pondexter arrived at the game less than 24 hours after she returned to the United States from Turkey and still put up a team-high 32 points in the Mercury’s 99-94 loss.

The Sparks game was followed by matchups with a pair of playoff teams in San Antonio and Seattle, followed by a trip to Minnesota to face the then-undefeated Lynx. The Mercury returned to Phoenix to face Washington, where they picked up their first win of the season. Then it was back on the road for games in L.A. and Seattle and home for Eastern Conference powerhouses Detroit and Connecticut.

Looking Ahead

Despite their early season struggles and challenges, the Mercury are just one game below .500. If the playoffs were to start today, they would be just a game behind Seattle for the fourth and final spot in the Western Conference. And with 21 games still to play, they have plenty of time to climb up the standings.

“This season has been really frustrating so far, to be honest,” said Taurasi. “But the beauty of it is that the season is very long. There are 34 games in the regular season and we’re going to stay positive and do whatever it takes for us to get back on the winning track. We’re still a good team, and the more well-rounded and better balanced we can be, the more W’s we’re going to get."