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The 2010 FIBA World Championship for Women will be held next September and October in the Czech Republic, and the Phoenix Mercury are very well represented.

As of now, two players from the WNBA champion Mercury, Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter, will be donning the red, white and blue for Team USA next fall.

FIBA has also conducted the draw for the tournament, and Team USA will participate in Group B, along with France, Greece and Senegal.

The rest of the squad is made up of the following WNBA players: Sue Bird (Seattle), Tamika Catchings (Indiana), Seimone Augustus (Minnesota), Sylvia Fowles (Chicago), Kara Lawson (Sacramento) and Candace Parker (Los Angeles).

UCONN head coach Geno Auriemma will guide the squad, and former Mercury great Jennifer Gillom will serve as one of his assistants. Gillom, who played with Phoenix from 1997 until 2002, is currently the head coach of the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx.

Tamika Catchings missed the first triple double in WNBA Finals history by just one rebound as the Indiana Fever held off the Phoenix Mercury 93-84 in game two of the best-of-five series at U.S. Airways Center.

Catchings, who wasn’t a big factor in game one before fouling out, stepped up her offensive game on Thursday, scoring 19 points while adding 11 assists, 9 rebounds and 2 steals in the win. Ebony Hoffman and rookie Briann January each scored 16 points for Indiana.

League MVP Diana Taurasi led Phoenix with 20 points, but she and her teammates struggled in the shooting department. The Mercury, the highest scoring team in the league, shot just 39% from the field and were held 13 points under their postseason scoring average. Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter combined to shoot just 12 for 38 from the field under constant defensive pressure by WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Catchings and the rest of her Indiana teammates.

With the series tied at 1-1, the festivities now shift to Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Game three is set for Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. Arizona time.

WNBA Finals Game 2 Postgame Audio

Mercury head coach Corey Gaines

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Mercury players Temeka Johnson and Diana Taurasi

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Phoenix Mercury head coach Corey Gaines summed it up best.

“If you didn’t like women’s basketball, I think you do now,” Gaines said after his Phoenix Mercury won game one of the WNBA Finals 120-116 in overtime over the Indiana Fever in what was the highest scoring game in league history.

Cappie Pondexter and Penny Taylor each had 23 points for the Mercury, and newly-crowned league MVP Diana Taurasi added 22 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists in the win.

Indiana All-Star Tamika Catchings, the league’s Defensive Player of the Year, fouled out with 2:42 remaining in the overtime, and Phoenix outscored the Fever 9-4 from that point to put the game away.

Katie Douglas led the Fever with 30 points. Former ASU guard Briann January had 11 points and 7 assists off the bench.

The best-of-five series continues Thursday night with game two at U.S. Airways Center.

Postgame Press Conferences

Mercury Head Coach Corey Gaines

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Mercury Players Cappie Pondexter and Penny Taylor

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The Chicago Sky are on a hellish road trip, and it was clear they weren’t up for facing the streaking Mercury.

If I’m honest, I feel for this Sky team as their next 3 games are against Indiana twice and the Storm. Ouch.

Having said that, it shouldn’t take away from how fantastic the Mercury played tonight. This team is rolling and getting better with every game.

With the win tonight, the Mercury take sole possession of 1st place in the Western Conference and won it’s third-straight game, matching a season high. Perhaps more importantly, they have now won 7 games on their home floor this season and have the 2nd best 13-game start in franchise history (1998, 10-3).

It was a dominating performance that started in the 1st quarter.

It’s hard to put into words just how good the Mercury looked in the first half (1st quarter especially), and I’m certain that nothing I say will do them justice, but I’ll do my best.

First of all, the reason they scored 48 points in the half is directly correlated with their defense and rebounding. The Mercury held a listless Sky team to only 17 points in the 1st quarter, and 13 in the 2nd. However, that doesn’t mean much unless the Mercury finish the play and rebound, something that Gaines and his staff have been preaching all year. Doing so, allowed the Mercury to get out in transition and score 34 points in the 1st quarter, a season high for the Mercury to start the game.  The Mercury out-rebounded the Sky 18-12 in the 1st half which, again, led to the Mercury being able to push the ball and get some easy points in the paint (16 in the half). “To be honest with you, when we came out like that I always set goals for us in scoring in halves and quarters and when I saw that Tangela, Dee, and Cappie were on I pictured a 70 point half for us,” Corey Gaines said after the game.

Ultimately, the reason the Mercury were so successful was because of how phenomenal their passing was as a team. In the half, the Mercury had 12 assists on 19 made field-goals which led to 8 of the 9 players who played in the 1st half to score. Le’coe and Diana paced the Mercury with 11 each in the quarter and Diana hitting a perfect 5-5 shots from the field. Cappie had her usual well-rounded game in the half with 7 points and 5 assists. Not to be forgotten, was how hard Tangela was crashing the boards with 9 in the 1st half alone to go along with her 7 points.

The 2nd half was more of a slowed down pace with the Mercury scoring a combined 42 points in the 3rd & 4th quarter, just 8 more than they had in the 1st quarter alone. What was especially impressive tonight was the team’s focus on defense, weak-side help, and rebounding. “The defense was fine,” Gaines said. “We held them to 13 points in the 2nd quarter. I’m definitely pleased with the rebounding but I want the full package; I’m greedy.”

Though, this game was essentially over in the 1st quarter with a demoralizing blow to the Sky early on, the Mercury never let the Sky get within less than 15 points the rest of the game. One of the clear signs of a championship team is being able to put teams away early who you’re supposed to beat; and the Mercury certainly did that tonight. “When you give a good shooting team wide open shots and they knock them down you’re going to be down by x amount before they start missing,” Sky coach Steven Key said. “They were running at the basket and we were scrambling to get back on defense and transition and that’s not a good thing when you play the Phoenix Mercury.”

Tonight was a much more balanced attack that should give the entire team confidence in one another. 10 players scored the ball, 10 players had at least 1 rebound, 20 assists were dished out on 34 made shots, and turnovers were limited to only 11. What also should be a positive sign for the Mercury is their focus on the glass; they out-rebounded the Sky 46-39 and are now 4-0 when they out-rebound their opponent. Leading the way was Tangeal Smith with a career-high 13 rebounds and Diana Taurasi who pulled down 10 to go along with her team-high 22 points. Diana also became the Mercury’s all-time leader in blocked shots with 185.

With Minnesota and Seattle both winning yesterday, tonight’s win was that much more important to secure. “A win is a win, especially right now every win is important for us,” Taurasi said about the victory. “Going to Sacramento on Saturday we needed to take care of this one. When it comes to winning and losing I feel like if we play well, if we play good basketball the rest will take care of itself.”

I can’t stress enough how balanced this team is. This season is so different than years past not only because of a legit 9-person rotation, but because each one of the players coming in contributes and forces teams to take notice. “It definitely helps,” Cappie said after the game. “Last year we kind of struggled with that. Teams know coming in it’s no longer about Diana and I putting points on the board and they actually have to focus in on our 5 players on the court. It takes a lot of pressure of us [Diana and Cappie].”

This team really is on the cusp of something great, believe me. If they can figure a way to correct or limit their weaknesses, there isn’t a team in the league that will catch them.

Unfortunately for the Mercury, tonight they simply beat themselves.

Though a close game throughout, the Silver Stars scored the final 8 points of the game in the last 2:43 to hand the Mercury their 3rd loss of the season, and 2nd in a row.

Game Summary

Phoenix again got off to somewhat of a slow start in the 1st quarter offensively making just 6 shots from the field. This wasn’t necessarily due to anything San Antonio was doing defensively, the Mercury just had one of those nights where only a couple players were able to find an early rhythm.  They also allowed 18 of San Antonio’s 19 first quarter points to be in the painted area with many open buckets.  Rebounding was fairly even after the 1st quarter (and throughout the entire game), hence, the concern wasn’t as much with rebounding the ball but with giving up so many easy baskets inside.

A lot of credit should definitely go to the Mercury coaching staff and their in-game adjustments to counteract San Antonio’s inside presence in the first half. At one point in the first quarter, the Silver Stars led the Mercury in points in the paint 18-6 and the margin increased to 26-12 at half. To reverse this, the Mercury really began to push the ball offensively which led to a 12-3 fastbreak point advantage after the 2nd quarter.  Phoenix also had the momentum going into halftime after Corey Gaines drew up a nice play to end the half with Meek dishing to Taurasi on a backdoor cut to put the Mercury up by 3.

The 3rd quarter looked a lot like the 2nd quarter with the Mercury beginning to really find a groove offensively and get to the foul line.  Much of this had to do with more of a focus on taking the ball inside to open up options along the perimeter when the defense collapsed. However, that plan was altered a bit for the Mercury when the Silver Stars didn’t collapse as much as they should; this led to 16 points in the paint for the Mercury in the 3rd and a 67-63 lead going into the 4th.

Phoenix was in control of the first 6 minutes of the 4th but never had that big “Mercury scoring run” we’ve been accustomed to in order to put San Antonio away.  Led by Becky Hammon’s 14 points in the quarter and 8 of Belinda Snell’s career high 21 points, the Silver Stars never let the Mercury’s lead become insurmountable and fought to stay within 1 point (83-84) with 4:09 left in the game.

Late Game Turnovers

That’s when things went South for Phoenix.

The Mercury only scored 3 more points in the game while the Silver Stars scored 8 to seal the win.  During those 4 minutes, Phoenix missed 6 shots and turned the ball over 3 times for a total of 7 in the quarter. “It was those 7 turnovers in the 4th quarter,” Gaines said after the game. “And those offensive rebounds they got, maybe like four or five in the last two minutes, that gave them a second shot.”

What typically has plagued the Mercury (rebounding and 2nd chance points) weren’t deciding factors in tonight’s loss.  San Antonio only out-rebounded the Mercury by 2 (33-31) and had just 3 more 2nd chance points (10-7).  Phoenix also was effective in running the break with 22 fast-break points to the Silver Stars 11.

This just goes to show how important it is to take care of the ball late in games and to execute.

Team Notes

Belinda Snell came off the bench to score 21 points on 7/11 shooting to go along with her 4 steals and 4 rebounds. “She lit us up,” Cappie Pondexter said about Snell’s performance.  Becky Hammon had 14 of her 19 points in the 4th quarter and Ruth Riley added 16 points for the Silver Stars.

Diana Taurasi had 10 of her 22 points in the first quarter and added a team-high 8 rebounds.  Cappie Pondexter had a season-high 26 points and 6 rebounds. The only other Mercury player in double-digits was Le’coe Willingham with 11 (7 of which were from the foul line). Meek had 8 points and 5 assists and a couple of important jump shots late in the game.  Tangela had a difficult shooting night hitting on only 3 of her 13 attempts.

DeWanna Bonner had a difficult night and maybe her toughest game as a rookie playing only 19 minutes without hitting a field goal. Kelly Mazzante, however, sparked the Mercury bench with three 3’s in her 14 minutes of action while Ketia Swanier kept Hammon in check defensively in her 8 minutes.  In her 2nd game back, Nicole Ohlde looked much more comfortable, both offensively and defensively, grabbing 4 rebounds and scoring 2 points in just 8 minutes.

Onto the next one…

The Mercury leave for Washington D.C. tomorrow to take on the Mystics Thursday night, then head to Minnesota to play the Lynx on Saturday.  This team hasn’t really had a day off in a long while and won’t get another one until after their game against Minnesota; they’ll have 3 days “off” before playing Seattle at home (for revenge) on July 1st.

Any car on the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit.

The New York Red Bulls of the MLS.

The now defunct Miami Hooters of the Arena Football League.

Stephon Marbury’s head tattoo displaying the logo of his shoe company, Starbury.

Arenas, coliseums and stadiums with names like U.S. Cellular Field, American Airlines Arena and Lucas Oil Stadium.

With knowledge of the marriage between business and sports, should the news that the Phoenix Mercury will wear jerseys prominently displayint the logo of Valley-based identity protection company Lifelock shock anyone?

The answer is no.

The new partnership between the Mercury and Lifelock makes sense, especially for the WNBA franchise, which according to reports, hasn’t been profitable in some time. It’s an opportunity for the Mercury to pull in some much-needed revenue, and for Lifelock to continue their creative marketing efforts, which have included CEO Todd Davis brazenly announcing his social security number on television and radio airwaves to demonstrate his belief in his product.

The Mercury were not in the top 5 among WNBA teams in terms of merchandise sales, according to figures released last week. Why not make up for the lag in merchandise sales by having a local company plop down 7 figures to put their logo on a jersey?

I’m curious to see how many Mercury faithful will spend their hard-earned dollars on a Lifelock jersey. My guess is not many.

But I know what you’re thinking. Will we see this in the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League? I would have loved to have heard NBA Commissioner David Stern’s response to that question at this morning’s press conference in New York. That is, if questions were even asked during the conference. Instead we got Bruce Beck’s WNBA preview, and the commissioner challenging Mercury guard Diana Taurasi to a ping pong game.

My answer to the above question is–I don’t think so.

In the four North American major league team sports, the team name, the logo, the colors and the jersey make up a brand all it’s own. Sports uniforms have become part of American fashion, even for those citizens who have never shot a three-pointer or fired a slap shot from the point. I don’t think any NHL, NBA, MLB or NFL franchise would risk cutting into their merchandise sales by slapping a logo of some corporation on their unis.

For example, wouldn’t the Suns replacing their logo on a jersey with, say a Greyhound Bus logo, weaken the Suns’ brand? The Suns have spent 41 years building their brand, and even without a championship to their credit, the brand is very strong, both locally and elsewhere. Plus, the Suns can attract multi-million dollar sponsors without having to offer up the real estate on Steve Nash’s chest. The Mercury and other teams from smaller, less-popular leagues don’t have that option. The Mercury took what they could get, and for that, they deserve some credit.

The major league sports uniform is still sacred territory as far as I’m concerned. I think you’d see some sort of fan mutiny if the Boston Red Sox took the field at Fenway with a giant Dunkin Donuts logo on their uniforms.

But then again, maybe I’m naive.

The Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA will be holding open tryouts for any player interesting in testing their skills to see if they can play at the top level of professional women’s basketball.

The tryouts will happen this Saturday, May 2nd, at 9:00 a.m. at U.S. Airways Center.

Two women will be chosen from the tryouts to participate in preseason workouts with the Mercury.

The opportunity to register costs $100, and interested parties should contact Leslie Factor at 602-514-8370.

For more information, visit the Mercury’s Official Website.

The WNBA Draft unfolded earlier today, and with the 5th overall pick, the Phoenix Mercury selected DeWanna Bonner, a 6-4 guard out of Auburn, who averaged 21 points, and 8.5 rebounds per game for a 30-4 Tigers team that won their first outright regular season SEC championship in 20 years. She was also named a First Team All-American by ESPN.com.

General Manager Ann Meyers Drysdale announced that Bonner was the top player on the Mercury’s draft board, and would have been their selection even if they had the first overall pick.

ASU guard Briann January was selected one spot after Bonner, at #6 overall, by the Indiana Fever.

The Phoenix Mercury will get the 5th overall selection in the 2009 WNBA Draft. The Mercury, as one of five non-playoff teams, had a 7.6% chance of landing the number one overall selection.

The Atlanta Dream, who have only one WNBA season under their belt, won the lottery, and will receive the first pick. Washington, Chicago and Minnesota will also pick before the Mercury.

Phoenix also selected guard/forward Sequoia Holmes in the Houston Comets’ dispersal draft. Holmes averaged just over 3 points and 2 rebounds in her rookie season with Houston last year.

Mercury to select fifth in 2009 WNBA Draft [Phoenix Mercury Official Website]
Mercury select Sequoia Holmes in Dispersal Draft [Phoenix Mercury Official Website]

The Mercury’s Diana Taurasi was named the WNBA’s top Western conference player of the week for the week ending on June 22.

Taurasi earned the honor by averaging 28.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4 assists in the Mercury’s three games.

The award was the seventh of her career and her second of the 2008 campaign.