When the Phoenix Mercury visited Madison Square Garden last month, they hardly looked like the defending WNBA champs as they began a five-game road trip with a blowout loss to the New York Liberty.

Instead, the Mercury will have a different look - that of the league's hottest team - when they return home for the rematch on Saturday night.

Phoenix goes for its fifth straight victory, and hopes to avenge its most lopsided loss in six years when it meets the Liberty for the final time in the regular season.

New York's 105-72 home win over Phoenix on June 22 set a new Liberty record for most points, and handed the Mercury their biggest defeat since an 89-48 loss at Seattle in 2002.

"It was one of those nights," Liberty coach Pat Coyle said. "We made a lot of shots and they didn't. Phoenix is really good, we just caught them in the midst of three games in five nights, traveling across country."

Coyle's comments appear especially prescient now that the Mercury (8-7) haven't lost since. Phoenix won the final four games of its road trip, capped by a 97-79 victory at winless Atlanta on Tuesday.

Mercury guard Diana Taurasi had a game-high 28 points. She leads the WNBA with 24.9 points per game, and also has at least six assists in each game of Phoenix's winning streak.

Perhaps of greater importance, the Mercury have tightened their defense, holding opponents to less than 40 percent shooting from the field in each of their last three games.

"They have all the pieces of the puzzle," said Atlanta coach Marynell Meadors, whose team shot 38.4 percent. "They capitalize on all your mistakes."

That defensive pressure didn't affect the Liberty (8-8) last month, as New York shot 54.3 percent and outrebounded Phoenix 46-35 while six players scored in double figures.

The Liberty, who have alternated wins and losses in their last eight games, are 1-2 on their five-game Western Conference trip. They're coming off an 84-71 loss at Seattle on Thursday, and had trouble defending the Storm's high-scoring duo of Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird, who combined for 56 points.

"Defense is all about wanting to stop the player more than they want to score," New York's Shameka Christon said. "They're great players, I'm not going to take that away from them, but I think that we could've been a lot better on defense."

They'll find out against the Mercury, who have the top two scorers in the league, with Cappie Pondexter second behind Taurasi at 23.6 points per game. Pondexter, though, did not play against the Dream.

The Liberty have lost their last two visits to the US Airways Center, including a 97-86 defeat last season. Penny Taylor, who took this season off to compete for Australia at the Beijing Olympics, had 31 and Pondexter added 27 for the Mercury.