Two surprise teams in the Western Conference go head-to-head for a second time — this time at closer to full strength — when the Phoenix Mercury visit the Golden State Valkyries on Monday night in San Francisco.
The clubs met in Phoenix as part of the Commissioner’s Cup on June 5, with rookie Lexi Held pouring in a season-best 24 points off the bench in an 86-77 Mercury home win.
Phoenix played that game without two of its top three scorers, missing Kahleah Copper (arthroscopic surgery on left knee) and All-Star forward Alyssa Thomas (strained left calf).
While Thomas has returned to play in the last 10 games, during which the Mercury have gone 8-2, Copper wasn’t able to make her season debut until June 15. She has since suffered a strained right hamstring, causing her to miss two more games and she reportedly is out for Monday’s contest.
Without Copper, the Mercury are coming off an impressive homestand in which they beat the Dallas Wings 102-72 before handing the Minnesota Lynx just their third defeat, 79-71. Sami Whitcomb exploded for a career-high 36 points in the win over the Wings, before Thomas led the way against the Lynx with 29.
The Mercury, a below-.500 team in 2024 (19-21), are 14-6 this season and trail only the Lynx (18-4) in the West. Coach Nate Tibbetts believes the best is still to come.
“It’s a really new team. I believe our three best players have played three games together this year, maybe four,” Tibbetts noted to reporters last week. “So we’re still building.”
Meanwhile, the expansion Valkyries held their own on a just-completed four-game trip in which they lost three times by a total of 22 points to the Lynx, Atlanta Dream and Las Vegas Aces. Interspersed was a decisive 80-61 win in Indianapolis over the Indiana Fever.
The Valkyries faced the Mercury last month without second-leading scorer Tiffany Hayes (nose injury), then went through an extended period without Janelle Salaun, Cecilia Zandalasini and Temi Fagbenle as they represented their respective countries in EuroBasket.
Those three contributed a total of 41 points to the 104-102 loss in Las Vegas on Saturday.
The Valkyries had their best offensive game of the year against the Aces but also set a season high in points allowed. The latter bothered coach Natalie Nakase more than the former impressed her.
“We never know what our shooting percentage is going to be. It’s something that’s out of our control,” she told a media gathering after the loss. “But most importantly, we are going to win based on our defense, so we have to show up (defensively) every day.”
–Field Level Media
