Tonight, rather than letting the physicality of the game take control, the Mercury showed how much heart they have in a resilient win against the Storm. Perhaps Diana says it best. “We all made an effort to go out there and just play,” Taurasi said about the team effort. “A lot of people did a lot of solid things which we’re going to need for us to beat good teams.”

Taurasi is right, a lot of people did a lot of solid things.

Though, there certainly wasn’t a shortage of things to complain about on both sides of the ball for both teams; a lot of calls were/weren’t made and each team had to make a decision to continually complain or just play even harder.

The Mercury chose the latter.

The first quarter was fairly even all around; points in the paint, rebounds, and 2nd chance points were all in favor of the Storm but not by much. What did factor into the lead were 6 Mercury turnovers which the Storm converted into 7 points. Cappie Pondexter kept the Mercury close hitting 3 three’s and had 11 points at the end of the quarter.

In the 2nd, it was Diana Taurasi’s turn to catch fire hitting 3 three’s and scoring 13 in the quarter. The Mercury played a much better quarter all around both offensively and defensively and took back the lead at one point. Tangela Smith started the game (and finished the game) having a much better shooting night hitting 4/5 shots and scoring 9 points in the half. The Storm, however, were able to convert down low and headed into halftime with a 16-4 edge in points in the paint.

Though, I really can’t in good conscience get to the 2nd half without talking about the foul at the end of the 2nd quarter…

Diana hit an amazing three with just 3.7 seconds remaining in the half from well beyond the arc. Then, one of the worst foul calls I’ve ever seen in a professional game happened…

Shannon Johnson, literally, jumped into Diana and Cappie from half-court and Cappie was called for her 3rd foul. Shannon hit all 3 free-throws to head into the locker room with a 3 point lead for the Storm. I was about 6 feet from the foul and can honestly say that Diana and Cappie were standing straight up and Johnson jumped right into them.

Just a terrible, terrible call.

At this point, Phoenix could’ve either sunk their heads and felt defeated, or come out in the 3rd quarter and show how much they wanted this win.

Again, they chose the latter. “I told them to forget about the refs, forget about the half,” Gaines said. “Bad call or good call, forget about it. You can’t change it now. Whatever you’re sulking you can’t change it now so just forget it.”

The Mercury responded by storming out of the gates in the 3rd quarter with swarming defense, productive offensive possessions, and a total team effort on both ends to score the first 11 point of the 2nd half. “I told them it had nothing to do with X’s and O’s,” Gaines said about the Mercury’s fast start to the 3rd. “All it took was to turn it up another notch, push the ball up court and put the intensity on them to get back. That’s when they did it.”

Le’coe was a beast in the paint and never shied away from taking it right to Jackson. Le’coe had 15 points and got to the foul line 4 times. Seattle missed 14 of it’s first 17 shots of the 2nd half and that was all before Lauren Jackson went down with a right ankle sprain.

The 4th quarter started almost the exact opposite of the 3rd; this time, Seattle scored the first 8 points and cut the lead down to 2 with just under 7 minutes left. That was as close as the game would get as Phoenix answered back with a three from Tangela Smith and went on to win the game by 8.

Every time these teams play each other it gets a little heated. Tonight, it was either Swin Cash and Diana Taurasi, Le’coe Willingham and Lauren Jackson, and Shannon Johnson against anyone defending her. A total of 2 technical fouls were called on the Storm as well as a flagrant on Tanish Wright when she grabbed DeWanna Bonner’s face on a layup and pulled her down. “We always have a great battle with Seattle,” Cappie said regarding the intensity. “It was a physical game and a lot of back and forth and a lot of crazy stuff happening in the game. For us to get this win we had to match their intensity and we did that.”

This time, however, it was the Mercury who were the more poised and collected team. Seattle ultimately lost it’s collective cool down the stretch and saw the game unravel from there. The Mercury certainly had their reasons to complain, especially with the call to end the first half. Instead, they let their game speak for themselves coming out with such high intensity in the 3rd.

Even though the Mercury shot over 50% from beyond the arc, they still maintain that they can do better…and I believe them. “That’s the first time all season I think,” Gaines said about shooting greater than 50% from three’s. “But, we can do better than that.”

Cappie Pondexter, once again, was extremely close to a triple-double falling just 2 assists short while grabbing a career-high 11 rebounds. “I just wanted to come out and play hard,” Cappie said. “We definitely needed this win, especially after going 1-2 on the road. We needed something to give us a little bit of momentum and tonight we were able to take advantage of that.”

Tangela Smith bounced back with a fantastic game not only offensively, but defensively as well. To go along with her 16 points and 7 rebounds, Tangela did the dirty work in the paint limiting Lauren Jackson’s output on the offensive end by denying the ball and forcing Lauren to shoot outside.

Diana had her usual awesome game with 22 points, 4 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 3 assists including 5/9 made three’s. Her shooting really sparked the Mercury in the 2nd quarter and her blocks on defense ignited the entire arena.

An unsung hero of the game is Ketia Swanier. Ketia had a great game backing up Temeka with 5 points, 2 assists, and 0 turnovers. She really is a big boost of energy off the bench and will be very important to this team down the stretch.

The Mercury travel to Los Angeles for their next game to take on the Sparks (with Candace?) on July 5th.

July 1st, 2009 10:23 PM