It’s a make-or-make league, especially for the Phoenix Mercury.
When they host the Los Angeles Sparks on Friday night (10 p.m. ET, ION), it will be almost a week since the last time the Mercury took the court. Last Saturday, the team had their poorest performance since Brittney Griner returned to the lineup on June 7, falling to the Minnesota Lynx, 73-60. Phoenix did little to compensate for a subpar shooting night—just over 31 percent from the field and around 20 percent from 3—in not only failing to stop Napheesa Collier from submitting another stellar performance, but also by allowing the undersized Lynx to establish an advantage on the glass, preventing the Mercury from turning their many missed shots into second-chance opportunities.
The dynamics of the defeat emphasize the extent to which shooting variance will determine the Mercury’s season-long success. In a WNBA that increasingly has embraced 3-point shooting, this is true of all teams, but particularly so of Phoenix, as they have leaned more heavily into an offensive identity founded on 3-point shooting. Additionally, because the Mercury often are not winning on the margins—forcing turnovers, generating fastbreak points, securing offensive rebounds, etc.—their dependence on strong shooting is…
