The Mercury were without Alyssa Thomas and Kahleah Copper again, and they struggled to make shots against a swarming Lynx defense.
The Phoenix Mercury were outclassed by the undefeated Minnesota Lynx in an 88-65 defeat at Target Center on Tuesday night.
The Mercury remain without forwards Kahleah Copper and Alyssa Thomas, as well as starting forward Natasha Mack, due to injury. After they led 23-19 by the end of the first quarter, Phoenix gave up a 9-0 run, opening the floodgates for a big loss.
“I thought in the first half, we were rushed,” Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said. “We came out in the first quarter, I thought we did a pretty good job, and then we got careless in the second.”
Outside of forward Satou Sabally, who led the Mercury starters with 15 points on 6-of-16 made shots, Phoenix made 3-of-14 shots as a team and committed three turnovers in the second quarter.
Minnesota’s strong defense has been a staple as it has improved to 8-0, proving it is in a different tier than the rest of its opponents. Phoenix, meanwhile, is trying to hold strong without two of its stars and another starter, forcing players into elevated roles.
The Phoenix Mercury have signed guard Megan McConnell. pic.twitter.com/xobpa6VH7S
— Phoenix Mercury (@PhoenixMercury) June 3, 2025
Without Thomas’ playmaking and Copper’s aggressiveness and force, the Mercury need their perimeter players to step up and make shots. The Mercury got 16 points from backup guard Lexi Held and saw guards Megan McConnell, who signed with the team on Tuesday, and Haley Jones play 13 and 15 minutes, respectively, but struggled to keep up with Minnesota, which expanded its lead to as large as 27 points in the second half.
“It’s tough. You haven’t had the practice time,” Tibbetts said. “The hope is, moving forward, this new CBA, our roster sizes are bigger. Because when you’re adding these players and they don’t know our stuff, it just makes it tough. It makes it tough.”
The Phoenix Mercury have 5 rookies on its roster and four of them play 19+ minutes
I know some of this is because of injuries, but that’s just unheard of in today’s league
— christan (no i), ß (@ChristanWNBA) June 4, 2025
Added guard Kitija Laksa: “I mean, the scheduling is tough. But it’s tough for everybody. So we cannot make excuses. At the same time, we’ve been lucky to get new players and we really hope that they stay healthy. So right now, that’s the main focus is stay healthy.”
The Lynx used a 7-2 run to start the third quarter and led 51-37 with 5:50 to go in the period. A 12-0 run in the fourth put the game away.
“I think Minnesota did a good job of being physical, not letting us get into our stuff as easily as we would’ve liked,” Held said. “I thought we were more aggressive in the second half, but it was hard to get good looks against them.”
Phoenix’s 3-point shooting was held in check by the Lynx, who forced the Mercury to shoot 5-of-30 from beyond the arc.
The Mercury return home on Thursday to face the Golden State Valkyries. The game tips off at 7 p.m. and will be televised by Arizona’s Family 3TV and Arizona’s Family Sports.
Listen to the latest episode of the Suns JAM Session Podcast below. To stay up to date on every episode, subscribe to the pod on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, YouTube Podcasts, Amazon Music, Podbean, or Castbox.
Please subscribe, rate, and review.