KEY STAT

• The Mercury outscored the Storm 25-13 in the final 10:51 of the game, including a 20-13 margin in the fourth quarter, to secure the victory to force a Game 5. Phoenix has owned the fourth quarter thru the first four games of this series, outscoring the Storm by 47 points (94-47).

HIGHLIGHTS

• Phoenix became the first team in WNBA Playoff history to force a Game 5 in a best-of-five series after trailing 0-2. Game five will be played Tuesday, September 4 at 7 p.m. PST on ESPN News and NBATV.
• The 17-point Mercury comeback is the largest of the 2018 season, and the largest playoff comeback since September 10, 2017 when the Mercury came back from a 17-point deficit in the second round of the 2017 Playoffs to defeat the Connecticut Sun.
• With the loss today, the Storm dropped back-to-back games for the first time during the 2018 season.
• The Phoenix defense was very opportunistic all game long forcing a playoff-high 14 turnovers and converting them into a playoff-high 23 points. The team is now 3-1 this postseason when scoring 10-plus points off opponent turnovers.
• Phoenix scored a playoff-high 52 points in the paint on 26-for-41 shooting (.658). The Mercury is averaging 47.5 points in the paint thru the first four games of the series.
• Diana Taurasi moved to 19-5 for her career in elimination games in the WNBA Playoffs, scoring 16 points, adding five rebounds and four assists to help the Mercury force a game five.
• Brittney Griner led all scorers in the game posting a career playoff-high 29 points and tying her career playoff-high for rebounds (12), posting her third consecutive double-double. Griner is averaging 21.5 points and 9.3 rebounds per game in the series.
• The Mercury shot a playoff-low 4-for-21 (.190) from three-point range on the night. The team’s previous low was the 6-for-24 (.250) performance in game three of this series. Phoenix is shooting just 25-for-90 (.278) from three-point range for the series.
• DeWanna Bonner, who entered today’s game ranked third in the WNBA for scoring in the playoffs, poured in 27 points to give her 609 career points in the playoff, moving her past Penny Taylor (604) for the second spot in franchise history.
• DeWanna Bonner has now scored 20-plus points in nine consecutive games dating back to the regular season and all six of the Mercury’s postseason matchups. Bonner leads the WNBA in playoff scoring averaging 25.4 points per game in the 2018 Playoffs (minimum two games played).
• Briann January, who entered today’s game tied for 19th on the WNBA’s all-time playoff three-pointer list with Angel McCoughtry with 42, went 1-for-4 from long range to break the tie and give her sole possession of the 19^th She now trails Lauren Jackson (44) by two makes for the 18th spot on the list.
• Seattle’s Breanna Stewart scored a team-high 22 points, adding eight rebounds, three assists and three blocks on the day.
• Seattle’s Alysha Clark scored a playoff career-high 13 points and hit a playoff career-high three 3’s in the game.
• Seattle’s Jewell Loyd, scored 11 points, and added career playoff highs for rebounds (9) and assists (7).
• Four of the five Seattle starters scored in double figures in the contest.

NOTES

MERCURY HEAD COACH SANDY BRONDELLO

(On the game…)

“We protected our house, that was our goal. It was a hard-fought game. It went down to the wire like a few of those games have, but once again the fourth quarter was big for us. We’re just very excited that we get to play a fifth game. Obviously it’s on Seattle’s home court but we have played well away from home this year so we will go in there and put on a good showing and may the best team win.”

(On what triggered the comeback…)

“I moved DeWanna Bonner to the three. She’s been great for us at the four, but I moved her to the three and put the ball in her hands and she got aggressive. Not every play was run for her, but she’s so dynamic on reversals when she’s on the attack and gets to the basket she can finish. I think that was big for us. Camille coming in did a good job on Stewie, playing a little bit more physicality. It’s just giving them a different look basically and it worked well for us. Obviously Sue not being out there worked well too. Hopefully she’s okay. You don’t want anyone getting injured. Hopefully everyone is on board and we go and have another great game on Tuesday.”

(On putting Camille in the lineup…)

“She’s an experienced player and she’s been in these situations before. When we fought back in that second game she was on the court for 11 minutes and played good defense against Stewie. With Sue out we knew that Lloyd and Stewie were going to get a lot of the action. We had Briann January, who I think is defensive player of the year along with Elena Beard, so you just need another defensive presence. We’re asking so much of BG on the offensive end that it just freed her up to be aggressive on the other end.”

MERCURY CENTER BRITTNEY GRINER

(On last play of the game…)

“I had just fouled Stewie on the three so I knew I had to do something to make it up. We knew the ball was going to Stewie at the end and that they were going to go to her to make a play. We just had to play defense, don’t foul, and try not to let her score, tie it up, and go to overtime. We don’t want any overtime. It’s just one game. That’s what we did. She drove, I just stayed there, kept my hands up high, and she got underneath the goal. That was it basically.”

(On winning four consecutive elimination games…)

“We don’t like being there, but we do well in single elimination games. We need to stop putting ourselves there, but whatever it takes to win a championship, that’s what we’re going to do. As a team it shows a lot of heart. Every single one of these games, doing whatever it is, whoever it is at the time. At different points in time it’s different people. They step up, make big plays, big stops, and hustle plays. I think that’s what is giving us that edge right now.”

MERCURY GUARD Dewanna Bonner

(On Bird leaving the game…)

“I think they lost their leader. However, with her going out they still played great basketball. They still made some shots. Everyone was hitting shots. Canada, Clark, everybody stepped up but I think we just wanted it a little more. I think we knew that if we lost this game we were going home. They lost a huge part of their plan unfortunately for them but they still played great basketball. They only lost by two points without her so it says a lot about their team.”

(On playing at the three in the fourth…)

“I think it gave me a different angle for me to attack instead of coming down the middle. Stewie kept coming over to block me. Attacking baseline or posting the smaller defender up gave me a different angle and I was finally finishing. At the beginning of the game I wasn’t finishing. I was rushing it and worried about the defense. I’m not sure about moving to the three or the four, I just wanted to score any way I could.”

STORM HEAD COACH Dan Hughes

(Opening statement…)

“In that stretch, we did a decent job on Yvonne (Turner) for about a half and she became a little more confident in the second half. I was pleased, we took their hit and they came back and got it back tied in that situation at that point. Kind of a back and forth affair. If we could have grabbed a rebound out down late then we could have had a chance to play with the ball and a tie score, but we battled and didn’t quite get it done. We’ll head home and get ready for five.”

(On playing Noelle Quinn down the stretch…)

“I wanted a veteran that would run the totality of kind of what we’re doing and settle us a little bit. I was going to bring her back in, we did, we kind of played offense. I needed a settling influence when we lost the lead. I knew we weren’t just going to score on quick action, it was going to take ball reversal action that did that. She’s a veteran that really kind of understands the totality of what we do. I needed to do something, because it was six points and was heading in the wrong direction. I knew we needed a little presence, a veteran presence and I reached to her. I thought she did a good job. I thought she helped us kind of get back there and we wanted to bring Jordin (Canada) back in, in regard to especially defensively and playing out of our defense.”

(On Phoenix coming back from large deficits in all three games…)

“Well I think the sense of urgency. They got some real offensive weapons and when they’re playing at a high level and they are very assertive, they’re hard to stop. So, there’s a little bit of a swing in regard to it. That’s just a reality of playoff basketball and I don’t think anything’s going to be easy and we’re learning about that. Sue’s (Bird) had experience but beyond that we as a group are kind of learning, learning some lessons. Some come better than others but we’re learning some things.”

(On Phoenix…)

“It comes down to a two end of the court answer to be honest with you. They’re able to play to their strengths and we’ve got to do a better job of making them play outside some of the areas that (DeWanna) Bonner wants to play, that (Diana) Taurasi wants to play, that (Brittney) Griner wants to play, they go to Griner quite a bit you know in regard to that, that’s not easy. Then offensively, we’re kind of learning… what tends to happen is the game gets half court, half court. We just have to be a little better on finishing. I thought we were actually better today, I didn’t think we necessarily finished better today. We got the ball to spots on the court that we wanted to but we didn’t make them pay readily in regard to that. Quite honestly, I thought what we were doing offensively was a little better we just had some real trouble especially in Griner and Bonner drives that it got difficult.”

(On last possession…)

“It was the same play we ran early in the game to be honest with you when Sue was in there. We had Stewie (Breanna Stewart) with the ball, we had her in good real estate. You wanted an attempt at that point but some of that got to do with the length. She was searching for it; we didn’t get it.”

(On if status of Sue Bird’s injury is known…)

“No. We knew she wasn’t going to be able to come back.”

STORM FORWARD Breanna Stewart

(On flow of the offense coming to a halt…)

“We put ourselves in some tough situations, tried to make some tough plays. The ball got stuck a little bit and we became a little stagnant. I don’t think it stayed that way for the remainder of the second half or the fourth quarter. But those lows don’t help us when we play a team like Phoenix.”

On final play…

“I don’t know if it was so much phoenix, the initial play we wanted to run broke down early and we were playing on the fly. being under the basket with BG (Brittney Griner) on you is a tough shot. Still, I should have gotten a shot off because it’s the last play of the game.”

STORM FORWARD ALYSHA CLARK

(On guarding Diana Taurasi…)

“I mean DT, she’s the toughest player to guard in the league. I’ve said this before but it doesn’t matter if she’s 0-11, she’s going to hit the game winner. She’s going to be in the play for the game winner because that’s the type of player she is and everybody knows that. So, for me I have to mentally prepare, just stay in as many plays with her as possible and make every shot she takes tough. She’s going to hit tough shots but I don’t let that weather me, I don’t let that get me down because she’s an amazing player so those are the kind of shots she’s going to hit. As long as I stay in plays with her and make it tough I’ve done my job.”

(On playing without Sue Bird …)

”I mean she’s one of our main leaders so obviously it’s a little bit different. She does a great job teaching throughout the season and she even said it at halftime she’s like ‘you guys are prepared for me not being out there. So, she just gives you confidence whether she’s on the floor or not and just having her presence there. it means a lot because she’s constantly teaching, she’s constantly helping us. She’s one of the greatest point guards   to ever play the game so of course we’re going to miss her on the floor with her offensive IQ and stuff like that. so, it was a little tough but we had ourselves in position to win the game.”

(On Jordin Canada…)

”Jordin did a great job. I think you nailed it right there, she plays fearless and that’s something that as a rookie and in these situations can easily be fear or doubt or whatever and she comes in confident. Whether she’s a rookie or not at the point guard, you’re the leader for our team on the floor. I think she handled that really well and she made a great play right there down the stretch to Tash (Natasha Howard) when she hit the bucket to tie it up. Those kind of plays she makes and she’s been in a lot of learning situations this year, so I’m really proud of how she handled it the way she did.”