PHOENIX – The ball was in the hands of the MVP, Breanna Stewart dribbling, spinning, looking for an opening with Brittney Griner towering and closing off all the daylight to the basket.

Stewart couldn’t find an opening, kicked the ball out, only to hear the final horn, and the Phoenix Mercury lived to play another day.

Phoenix became the first team in WNBA history to face an 0-2 series deficit and force a winner-take-all Game 5 with Sunday’s win at Talking Stick Arena, erasing a 17-point third-quarter deficit to stun the Seattle Storm, 86-84.

The Mercury, who have survived four elimination games in this WNBA postseason so far, rode stellar second-half defense and another heroic effort by DeWanna Bonner to one of the most memorable comebacks in WNBA postseason history.

Seattle played the majority of the game without floor general Sue Bird, the WNBA’s All-Time assist leader leaving in the second quarter after taking an accidental elbow to the nose from teammate Stewart while trying to get around the screen.

Bird sustained a broken nose – the second time in the WNBA postseason (2004) that Bird has earned a broken nose – and she did not return to the game. Bird had scored seven points when she departed.

The Storm, who shot 72 percent in the first quarter and set a franchise playoff record with 31 first-quarter points, struggled in her absence, watching another large lead whittle away as the momentum shifted by to the Mercury.

“I think they lost their leader,” Bonner said. “Even with her going out, they still played great basketball. They still made some shots. Everybody stepped up. But I think we just wanted it a little bit more. We knew, if we lost this game, we are going home. But they lost a huge part of their puzzle. But they only lost by two points without her. That says a lot about their team.”

Bonner, moving from the ‘4’ spot to the ‘3’ to take advantage of her size on the perimeter, scored 21 of her 27 points in the second half. And Griner finished the day with 29 points and 12 rebounds, including the shot that gave the Mercury the lead with 14.1 seconds to go after a huge offensive rebound from Camille Little.

The series returns to Seattle Tuesday night, the winner advancing to the WNBA Finals. Phoenix will be playing for a chance to claim their fourth WNBA title, which would pull them even with Houston and Minnesota in the WNBA annals. Seattle hasn’t been to the WNBA Finals since 2010, when the Storm last won a title.

The home team has won every game in this series.

“You always want to play in front of your home fans, you always want to sleep in your own bed,” said Seattle forward Alysha Clark. “It’s big for us to be back in front of our fans.”

Bird’s status for Tuesday’s game is uncertain. What’s clear is that she is a steadying force for this relatively young team, one that appeared shaken when she left the floor. Rookie Jordin Canada took over the bulk of the point guard duties. Bird returned to the bench in the fourth quarter, her nose bandaged, and she was in the middle of all of the late-game huddles, encouraging and coaching her teammates.

“She told us at halftime, ‘You are prepared to play without me’,” Clark said. “She is one of our main leaders, so obviously it’s a little bit different … She is one of the best point guards ever to play the game, so obviously we are going to miss her out on the floor, her offensive IQ. It was a little tough. But we had ourselves in position to win the game.”

Phoenix’s defensive pressure, and the Bonner position switch, changed the game. The Mercury forced 12 turnovers in the second half. Little and Briann January played strong defense against Stewart and Jewell Loyd, respectively.

“We were not in plays like we should be in that first half and we knew that,” said Mercury head coach Sandy Brondello. “We knew they were going to make shots, but we gave them too many uncontested shots and 3s. We had to make sure had to stick with our philosophy. We needed to be active and have a sense of urgency. This is our season, and it just came down to that.”

And it didn’t hurt that Bonner, the most productive player in this WNBA postseason so far, got hot. Phoenix outscored Seattle 25-7 in a seven and a half minute stretch bridging the third and fourth quarters to go up 84-80 with 2:15 to go.

Stewart said that the Storm lost their offensive rhythm in the second half.

“We put ourselves in some tough situations,” Stewart said. “The ball got stuck a little bit and we got a little stagnant. I don’t think it stayed that way for the remainder of the fourth quarter, but those lulls don’t help us when we are playing a team like Phoenix.”

The Mercury will find themselves in yet another win-or-go-home game on Tuesday night, for the fifth time in seven games this postseason.

“We don’t like being there,” Griner said. “But we do well at single-elimination games. We’d just like to stop putting ourselves there. Whatever it takes to win a championship, that’s what we are going to do. This team just shows a lot of heart to win these games. Different people step up to make big plays, big stops, hustle plays. That is just what’s giving us that edge right now.

“We aren’t ready for the season to be over with yet. So, we are literally doing everything we can on every possession to get the win.”

Longtime WNBA reporter Michelle Smith writes a weekly column on WNBA.com throughout the season. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the WNBA or its clubs.

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