After a slow start, the Phoenix Mercury believe they are turning things around.

The defending WNBA champions host the stumbling Chicago Sky on Friday, looking to win back-to-back games for the second time this month.

The Mercury (3-6) went into their last game on Wednesday averaging a league-leading 84.4 points, but they had lost their previous two after failing to score 80 in either of them. Phoenix bounced back, however, with their highest-scoring game of the season, a 102-81 victory over Eastern Conference-leading Connecticut.

It was the first time Phoenix topped 100 points since beating Detroit 108-92 in Game 5 of last year's WNBA finals. The Mercury scored at least 100 points 12 times last season.

"This game was different because of our energy from the beginning to the end," said Phoenix's Cappie Pondexter, who had 22 points and nine rebounds. "We played 40 minutes of Mercury basketball - shooting, running, and defending."

The Mercury are the WNBA's highest-scoring team, led by the league's top two scorers - Pondexter (25.1 ppg) and Diana Taurasi (24.4 ppg). However, they also give up a league-high 87.7 points per game, contributing to their slow start.

Phoenix went 0-4 in May before opening this month with back-to-back victories over Washington and Los Angeles. Now the Mercury can win two straight again if they beat the Sky for the fifth consecutive time.

"It's getting better little by little," Taurasi said after scoring 32 points Wednesday. "It's a long season and you can't expect to be where you want to be right now, but today was definitely a step in the right direction."

Friday is the finale of a three-game homestand for the Mercury, who play their next five on the road through July 1.

Chicago (3-6), meanwhile, has lost two in a row and five of seven, including an 80-67 loss to Los Angeles on Wednesday. Jia Perkins scored 18 points and Candice Dupree added 14 for the Sky, who trailed by as many as 23 points and were outrebounded 41-24.

That was the opener of a three-game road trip for Chicago, which fell to 2-2 since losing Sylvia Fowles, the second overall pick in this year's draft, to a sprained knee. She's expected to miss two to four more weeks.

The Mercury have won all four meetings against the Sky, including two games in Phoenix by an average of 13.5 points.