POSTGAME NOTES

KEY STAT

• The Phoenix defense held the Storm to its second-lowest point total of the year, allowing just 66 points on 29-for-79 (.367) shooting from the floor. The Mercury defense also kept the Strom off the free throw line, committing only 16 fouls on the night, which led to a season-low five free throw attempts for the Storm

HIGHLIGHTS

• The Phoenix victory forces a game four in the best of five series to be played Sunday, September 2nd at 2 p.m. at Talking Stick Resort Arena.

The Mercury recorded a playoff-low 13 assists on the night. Entering tonight’s game the team averaged 23.3 assists per game for the playoffs after averaging a franchise record 20.6 assists per game in the regular season.

• Phoenix tied its playoff-high mark for blocks with eight on the night bolstered by Dewanna Bonner and Diana Taurasi who both blocked a team-high three shots.
• The Mercury scored a playoff-high 17 points off a playoff-high 13 forced turnovers. The Mercury has forced 10.7 Storm turnovers per game thru the first three games of the series.
• Phoenix tied its playoff-high with 50 points in the paint on 25-for-38 shooting (.658).
• The Mercury’s Diana Taurasi, who moved to 18-5 for her career in elimination games in the WNBA Playoffs, scored all eight of her points in the fourth quarter to help ice the game away for the Mercury.
• DeWanna Bonner, who entered the game ranked 23rd on the WNBA’s all-time playoff scoring list with 555 points, led all scorers in the contest with 27 points. Her 27 points move her career total to 581, moving her past Vickie Johnson (578) to take the 18th spot on the list
• Bonner also pulled down 11 rebounds to go with her 27 points giving her double-doubles in four of the five Mercury playoff games, and six of the last seven total games dating back to the regular season.

• Diana Taurasi, who was held scoreless in the first half for the first time since May 30, 2018 against the Mystics she was held scoreless the first half, put up a playoff-low eight points on 3-for-11 shooting from the floor.

• Yvonne Turner, getting her first start of the 2018 WNBA Playoffs, put up career-highs for points (19) and playoff career highs for field goals (7), rebounds (7), assists (6) and steals (3) in a career-high 38 minutes.

• Brittney Griner, who recorded a career-high 10 double-doubles in the regular season, finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds to record her second consecutive double-double and second of the 2018 playoffs.

• Griner’s one block on the night gives her 77 career postseason blocks, moving her past Candace Parker (76) and into a tie for the second spot with Ruth Riley (77) on the WNBA’s all-time playoff block list. The block also makes Griner the leader among active players in playoff blocks.

• Seattle’s Sue Bird racked up a playoff-high 11 assists, while scoring no points. Bird has now recorded double-digit assists in two of her three playoff games on the year.

• Seattle’s Natasha Howard’s 19 point, 10 rebound performance marks her first career playoff double-double.

• Seattle’s Breanna Stewart’s 15 point (all in second half) and 11 rebounds to give the 2018 WNBA MVP her first career postseason double-double.

• Seattle’s Jordin Canada posted playoff career highs for points (11) and assists (4) in 17 minutes off the bench for the Storm.

Media Availability: The Mercury’s next media availability will take place tomorrow, September 1 from 1-1:30 p.m. Phoenix Time at Talking Stick Resort Arena. Contact Bryce Marsee at BMarsee@PhoenixMercury.com to confirm availability time.

Phoenix Mercury Quotes

MERCURY HEAD COACH SANDY BRONDELLO…………………………………………………………………………………………….

(On the game…)

“I loved our fight. We said if we wanted to beat Seattle we had to play for 40 minutes, and I think we played a complete game tonight. Yvonne Turner stepped into the starting lineup with Steph out and she was pretty special for us tonight. It’s one game. We did what we had to do, which was win on our home court, and it keeps us alive. We’re excited about that, and hopefully we can take care of our home court on Sunday.”

(On preparation for the game…)

“We had a long video session yesterday. I thought we were good in the games in Seattle, but we weren’t great. We had too many breakdowns through a bit of fatigue and just didn’t finish plays. We didn’t execute the scout at all times. We had really good moments, but then we had ones where we broke down. Seattle is a team where if you don’t execute what you want to do they exploit you on every breakdown. Tonight we were very locked in and that was the difference. This is our season. We knew we were close, we just had to go out and do it for 40 minutes.

(On Bonner’s play this season…)

“DeWanna has always been a special player. If anyone has had babies, it’s not that easy to come back and play as well as she has. She just continues to impress me. She’s built like Dianna. She has that will to win. She loves challenges, she knows what she is capable of doing, and she makes big plays. I think moving her to the four gives her a bit more versatility. She rebounds way better, and she can defend anyone when she’s locked in. It’s great for her to have a successful season, but what I love about DeWanna is that she’s not just a great player, she’s a really special person.”

Mercury guard Yvonne Turner…………………………………………………………………….. 19 points | 7 Rebounds

(On her preparation for the game…)

“The thing about the WNBA is that you always have to stay ready, whether you play one minute or 40 minutes. I just always make sure that I’m doing what I need to do, knowing what our schemes are. When I have to step up, I have to step up, and I did that tonight on the defensive end for our team.”

(On her performance…)

“It’s just my game. Coach told me, “Don’t think. Don’t overthink. Just play your game” and that’s what I did. I know my biggest strength is defense, and I brought that for my team tonight and when I was open they told me to shoot the ball.”

Mercury guard Dewanna Bonner……………………………………………………………….. 27 points | 11 Rebounds

(On her return this season…)

“It’s been an unbelievable year for the Mercury and also for myself. The hardest thing I ever did was coming back from twins, it’s like starting over from scratch. To be in this opportunity and this moment is one of the best feelings ever. Tonight it was unbelievable for my teammates to come out here in an elimination game and play the way that we did. We got one more, we can’t settle, and we have to be great because that’s a great team that we’re facing. We know they’re going to come back and make some adjustments and we have to as well. We have to be ready.”

(On Turner’s game…)

“She gives us that energy. All year long when Yvonne got in the game it was like, ‘Get the ball and go. Don’t stop, no one can stop you.” She’s the fastest person out there. On defense she brings that energy and that fire. She picks up full court and it was the youngest person guarding the oldest person when she was guarding Sue. She was causing havoc out there and it’s good to see and good to feed off of as her teammate. I’m so proud of her, but I already told her that 40 minutes is over and it’s on to the next one. We have to be even better because they’re going to come harder so we have to be even better.”

Seattle Storm Quotes

Storm HEAD COACH dan hughes…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

(Opening statement)

“We were playing catchup most of the game and it never quite felt like we were out of it. We would kind of get back in it and they would kind of separate. We never had control of the game, either offensively or defensively. We had some trouble defensively, especially in close-out situations. When you play a team like Phoenix and they have three exceptional players you try and get one to be average, but then Yvonne Turner steps up and she played really well. She changed the dynamic of the game. I still feel like if we could have executed a little better and been tougher on a couple things it could have been a really close game at the end, but we didn’t do that and you have to give Phoenix credit.”

(On game preparation for Game 3)

“The biggest challenge for us is that some of these are new experiences. You can try and equate it to the regular season but it is just not the same. We are going through a lot of experiences with the team and just having the persistent presence it takes when you go on the road in this kind of environment, is what it takes. When I talk to the team tomorrow the team will have a different look at the reality of how tough it will be at this stage in the season.”

(On Yvonne Turner’s performance)

“We weren’t quite sure how they would adjust their lineup and what affect that would have on us. In a lot of cases it was transition defense that beat us and that’s where we had some issues. We also had some trouble guarding the basketball and we have to do a much better job of that. Before, the Mercury spread the floor really well, but with Yvonne they come at you on the dribble. We have to do a better job of controlling the transition so we can get into a half court set and control our defense.”

STORM forward Breanna Stewart………………………………………………………………. 15 points | 11 REBOUNDS

(On the biggest difference not playing a playoff game at home)

“I think the biggest difference is that everybody knew that we were up 2-0 and Phoenix was down 0-2. And coming back and playing on their home-court, they do not want the season to be over, just like we don’t want ours. They had more of a sense of urgency and now it’s a quick turnaround and back at it again on Sunday.”

(On fourth quarter struggles)

“Honestly I don’t think we are overthinking it too much, I think you guys are over-analyzing it more than we are. In the fourth quarter today they went on a run and that’s what has happened the past three times, but it’s not so much their run it’s that we don’t have an answer. I don’t think today we had a run the entire game, and to win a game like that is tough.”

storm center natasha howard…………………………………………………………………… 19 points | 10 rebounds

(On the Mercury defense)

“They were being more aggressive. They through the first punch and we didn’t respond back to it. They were more aggressive than us on both ends of the floor.”

(On the friendly relationship with Phoenix of the court)

“Well playing the WNBA, the majority of the players we either play against overseas or we are teammates with them overseas. When we get on the court we are not friends, but off the court we talk and there is no bad blood.”