KEY STAT

• The Mercury was unable to slow down the Mystics offensive, allowing a season-high 56.1 percent shooting (37-of-66) despite holding the Mystics to just 26 points in the paint on 13-for-21 (.619) shooting. The Mystics were unbothered by the Mercury defense and shot 13–for-22 (.591) from the mid-range and 11-of-23 (.478) from deep on the night.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The Mercury’s Big 3 of Diana Taurasi (29), Brittney Griner (35) and DeWanna Bonner (20) combined to score 84 points tonight, setting a WNBA record for most points scored in a non-overtime game by a trio of teammates in league history.
• The Mercury won the battle of the boards 35-26 on the night, including a 10-2 advantage on the offensive boards.
• The Mercury capitalized on its second chance opportunities, turning nine offensive boards into a season-high 19 second chance points.
• Tonight’s game marked the first time this season the Mercury has lost when carrying a lead into the fourth quarter, dropping to 15-1 on the season.
• Phoenix owned the paint in the contest scoring 46 points on 23-for-38 (.605) shooting in the lane, while holding the Mystics to just 26 points on 13-of-21 (.619) in the paint. The Mercury narrowly missed its season high for points in the paint on the season (48).
• Despite the loss tonight, Phoenix head coach Sandy Brondello coached in her 200th career game as a WNBA head coach spanning over six seasons. Brondello, who coached the San Antonio Silver Stars and Phoenix Mercury, holds a 113-87 overall record and a 99-67 record at the helm of the Mercury. She is one win away from becoming the first coach in Mercury history from recording 100 wins with the franchise.
• Diana Taurasi, who scored 29 points on the night, played in her 427^th career game, moving her past Tully Belivagua (426) for sole possession of the 14th spot on the WNBA’s all-time games played list. 

• Brittney Griner didn’t miss a second of action playing a season-high 40 minutes, setting season highs for points (35), matching her career high for made field goals (15) and attempted a career-high 25 shots from the floor. Griner also tied Mercury season highs for points in a quarter (14) and points in a half (20).

• Griner also grabbed 11 rebounds, including five defensive rebounds to give her 1,001 defensive rebounds for her career (4th Mercury player to do so), securing her eighth double-double of the season to bring her franchise-record career total to 35.

• DeWanna Bonner, who entered the game with 595 career assists, tallied five assists on the evening to give her 600 for her career. She becomes the third player in Mercury history to record 600 assists, joining Diana Taurasi (1,799) and Penny Taylor (861).

• Stephanie Talbot recorded a career-high six assists on the night, while tying career highs for steals with two and blocks with one.

• Washington’s Elena Delle Donne, who entered tonight’s action ranked sixth in the league in scoring at 20.2 ppg, led the Mystics in scoring with 30 points on 10-for-14 from the field and a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe.

• With tonight’s win the Washington Mystics clinched a playoff berth, and now own the season tiebreaker over the Mercury.

Media Availability: The Mercury’s next media availability will take place on Thursday, August 9. Contact Bryce Marsee at BMarsee@PhoenixMercury.com to confirm availability time.

Mystics Quotes

Mystics HEAD COACH mike thibault…………………………………………………………………………………………

(On the let down in the third quarter…)

“I’m still kind of puzzled over some of the things that occurred in the last couple of minutes. For us, winning a road game like this… I don’t know when the last time Washington won a season series with Phoenix, particularly a time when they won it on the road. We clinched a playoff spot for us tonight, clinched a winning road record for the year. That is pretty rewarding thing considering all the stuff we went through earlier in the year.”

(On team’s offensive efficiency…)

“It helps when your best players make shots. You know when you come out and start the game with Toliver and Delle Donne making the shots that they did, and LaToya Sanders has kind of been our unsung hero all year. You know nobody in the league ever thought of her as an offensive player. She has carried us a lot when teams are trying to double team on Delle Donne and she has made people pay. I just thought we moved the ball, we had a high number of assist, I think we were able to step into our shots tonight instead of having to play off the dribble.”

(On shutting down Mercury three point shots…)

“That was just the focus of the game, I mean you know we were going to give up some mid-range shots tonight, but we were going to try to stop their threes. They still made some, but they had to work to get them. You can’t shut all of them down, we helped on Griner sometimes, but in the  fourth quarter we tried to stay home and make it tough on them.”

mystics forward Elena delle donne………………………………………….. 30 points | 4 REBOUNDS

(On the team’s production…)

“Everything is feeling really good, we’re spacing the floor really well, trusting in the extra pass finding one another. Defensively when we need to get stops we are able to come away with some. Huge road victory, now it is time to go home and get ready for Seattle.”

(On her ability to create space away from the ball…)

“I think it is years of playing against really good defenders, and just learning I can’t just stand there or I am going to be taken away the entire game. I’m trying to stay on the move especially when teams are being aggressive. You can see fouls and holding when you are moving, but if you are just standing there it is easy to beat you up. You know I have my games, some better than others but I just have to continue to move.

mystics guard kristi toliver…………………………………………………………. 25 points | 4 rebounds

(On the team’s effort…)

“I mean honestly everyone stepped in and did their thing, Mo (Monique) came in and made good plays, LaToya did her thing, knocked down here shots and played tough against BG, Natasha knocked down her shots, you know I think everybody that was in contributed and did their thing and that is what we need.”

(On the team’s third quarter breakdown…)

“I mean they were getting the ball the BG with a back screen with Diana, and they were clearing out their guards so BG had the open block and they ran that over and over again. We couldn’t get it right for a little bit, but we finally got it together on that end and put stops together and when we put stops together we know we are going to score the basketball, but we were just giving them too many opportunities.

Mercury Quotes

Mercury HEAD COACH Sandy Brondello…………………………………………………………

(On the team’s play at home….)

“I wish we could play better because we have the best fans in the WNBA. We’ve had great energy when we’re on the road and I don’t know what the explanation is. Maybe opponents like coming into our home court, I don’t know.”

(On the game and looking ahead….)

“I like that we fought back, I didn’t like the way that we came out and started the game. We’ve got these lulls in our game and it’s probably from overplaying people. But I think that’s what we have to do to win. We’ve got four more games, and our goal is just to get the highest seed as possible, and just make sure that we’re playing good basketball these next four games and play well in front of our fans.”

(On being close in recent games…)

“We’re close. Obviously we rely on our big three a lot and I think Steph and Bri have been good for us. It’s just about getting some stops here and there. I think DB at the four is good but we need more productivity from our bench. Anyway we want to win we just got to get a little more from our bench. Maybe it’s me trusting more too, I don’t know, but I just need a little bit more execution when they’re on the court. It’s hard to take out any of the big three, but they still need to rest. I played BG forty minutes, I don’t do that very often, but she was playing fantastic

Mercury guard diana taurasi…………………………………… 29 points, 7 rebounds

(On the game…)

“In this league, you’ve got to play well to win. Every team’s got good players, a lot of them, and if you don’t play consistent enough throughout a game, if you don’t get enough production from people, and doing a lot of little things and a lot of big things, you end up losing a lot of games like we are right now. It’s unfortunate because I think we have a lot of talent in this room. We’ve got a lot of fight, but it’s not coming out in ways that is helping us win games.

(On what they need to do to win…)

“At this point, every game’s hard. So we got to really just focus on coming back in here and getting our minds right and trying to win a game. You can talk about this and you can talk about that, but at a certain point, you’ve got to have some willpower to just win a game. It has to be 11 people; it has to be a group effort. It has to be a group mentality, and I don’t know if we have that right now.”

(On importance of home stretch to end the season…)

 “I mean at this point, not really that important. We can’t win at home. We can’t play well at home. We can’t muster any energy at home. It’s as good as we make it.”