Winning isn’t easy in the WNBA, and it’s even harder when you’re the defending champion. Night in and night out the defending champion receives the opposing team’s best shot. And each time they have to find a way to match that intensity.

Somehow, that’s only half of the daunting task the Phoenix Mercury face this season.

Head coach Sandy Brondello’s squad is in the midst of a 2015 season that will pose a new set of challenges to a franchise that has overcome a host of obstacles in past years. Diana Taurasi is sitting out for the entire season. Reigning WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Brittney Griner is suspended for the first seven games.

As such, the Mercury are looking to other players to play expanded roles to make up for the production lost with Griner and Taurasi’s absence – DeWanna Bonner and Candice Dupree in particular.

“They mean a lot. They’re the leaders of this team,” Brondello said following Phoenix’s loss to the Liberty Thursday. “They’ve been there, done that. They’re great players in their own rights. At the moment with Brittney [Griner] out and we still have a guard to come back, we’re down a little bit in the post, so they have to just keep picking up big games, but that’s the way we want them to play all season long. That’s their responsibility and they’re capable of it. They missed some shots tonight but they’re capable of making more shots.”

Both Bonner and Dupree are well aware of how important they are to the Mercury’s success, both in the interim and when Griner returns. And both of them are capable of living up to the expectations.

Bonner, a three-time Sixth Woman of the Year award winner, averaged 20.6 points per game in 2012 and helped carry the load for a Mercury team that was also shorthanded without Taurasi.

“We just want to be aggressive,” Bonner said. “We’re shorthanded, so you’ve got to step up a little bit more. We’re just both trying to be aggressive and trying to get some wins.”

Dupree is just as capable. The 10-year veteran was a vital part of last year’s team and was rewarded with an All-Star nod for her efforts – her fourth All-Star team selection. If the Mercury are going to defend their 2014 title, Dupree will again be a vital component.

She says she and Bonner have been in this position before and are ready and willing to accept the challenge.

“It’s not anything new,” Dupree said. “It’s basically what we have to do when we’re overseas on our teams. I guess I need to start knocking down shots, but we have to look to be aggressive. At the same time we have to play team basketball. … We just have to move the ball and play off each other.”