The Phoenix Mercury played their opening game of the season tonight as they took on the Defending Champion Las Vegas Aces in Sin City.  There is a lot to look forward to this season for the Team from the Valley and their over hauled roster.  I don’t think I will be doing a game review for every game like I have done in the past.  It’s hard because they are a west coast team that tends to play late night games and I don’t always watch them live.  But seeing as this is the opener I figured I would break down what I saw.  This will also double nicely as a season preview. 

The first thing that has to be talked about is Brittney Griner’s toe.  Griner is still the team’s best player.  Or she is at least their most dominate player.  And that is on both ends of the court.  Right before the season was to begin Griner reportedly broke one of her toes.  That is pretty much all the info we have received from the team.  She broke her toe and will be reevaluated in a couple of weeks.  This is a devastating blow to the beginning of the Mercury’s season.  It usually takes a broken toe about 6 weeks to heal (from what I have read). That is a long time to go without their starting center.  The fact that the team said she will be reevaluated in a couple of weeks makes me believe that it is not that bad of a break and should heal nicely and quickly.  Let’s all hope the Mercury are not channeling their inner Celtics here and just completely down playing a major injury.

Speaking of channeling their inner Celtics, With the addition of new head coach, Nate Tibbitts, and especially with Griner out, the Mercury have fully embraced the three-point shot.  On the broadcast, which appeared to be the Aces’ home broadcast, they mentioned many times that the Mercury plan to take 40 threes a game.  (they got to 36 tonight).  They really are an undersized team, even with Griner, and have a lot of shooters.  Thus, this strategy makes a lot of sense.  And if it can work in the NBA, it can work in the W.  The Mercury were playing a five out offense for most of the night.  When they were not in five out, they were in four out.  (Five out and four out means that all 5 or 4 of the players are on the perimeter, outside the three point line.  It’s basically what the Celtics play.  Five out when Horford’s on the floor and 4 or 5 out when Porzingis is out there.  Four out when the Green Kornet is on the floor). 

The problem with this system is that it can result in some really streaky offense.  When the threes are falling, it’s great.  When they are not, well, the other team gets a lot of fast break chances.  When you play this way, you need other options to go to when the threes are not falling or the other team starts over playing them.  This is where Griner would usually come in.  She would be the balling force keeping the offense flowing through out the game.  With all the shooters on the floor, Brittney is either going to have a lot of space to work with in the post or a lot of assists (and hockey assists) kicking out of double teams.  Without Griner, they can end up being very one dimensional.  Also, in this type of system, you really need to crash the boards.  You are going to miss a lot of shots so stealing extra possessions is a big thing.  Also, grabbing an OR and kicking it out is a great way to get an open look at a three.  This is something else Griner will help with when she returns.  Until then, the offense is going to struggle at times. 

If you are reading this and have any idea of what I am talking about, you are probably thinking “The 5 and 4 out system is used to create one on one match ups with a lot of room for the players to drive to the basket.  Not just huck up threes”.  Well, you would be correct.  And it does and will happen for the Mercury.  However, taking people off the dribble one on one is not as prevalent in the W as it is in the Association.  I don’t want to get into it here but the athleticism is different and it’s just not as effective as it is in the men’s game.  It’s one of the reasons women play a more team-oriented game.  There will be some of it by the Merc, but you will not see all the iso ball you see in a Celtics game.  This is why having a post presence and crashing the boards are more important to the Mercury than it was for the Celtics pre-Porzingis.   

The defense is going to suffer the most without Griner protecting the rim.  From what I saw in this game, they are going to use a variety of defenses to try and slow down the other team.  They used zones, man to man, and even some full court pressure against the Aces tonight to varying effects.  I think the biggest thing for their defense is going to be making shots and not turning the ball over.  It’s a lot easier to play defense in basketball when the other team has to inbound the ball.  Missed shots and live turnovers lead to break outs and difficult defensive situations.  Tighten up the offense and the defense will settle in.   

Well, that is pretty much a season preview, now let’s get into this game specifically.  Overall, I have to say I was kind of impressed with the Merc’s outing tonight.  They went into the home of the defending champs and the odds-on favorite to win it all again this year and hung with them all game.  And this is of course with out Griner.  After a slow start they really got things going and played pretty well. 

It was a very sloppy game for Phoenix.  This was to be expected as they completely revamped their roster and only have 4 players left over from last season, and that includes Griner.  They looked like a team that had never played together because, well, they really haven’t.  The WNBA has a really short preseason and the teams only play 2 preseason games.  So, it can take some time for new players to jell.  When most of the team is new, the start of the season is going to look like a pick-up game.  There were turnovers, 15 to be exact, and miscommunications all game long.  Against a team as good as the Aces, you just can’t have that and win.  They had a chance to win at the end but their execution was lacking.  Again, to expect anything else would have been asking a lot. 

Individually I thought a lot of the Mercury players looked good.  Diana Taurasi looked young and healthy (at least until the last 25 seconds).  I have assumed this was going to be her last season for a few years now, even though I do not believe she has said so, so I hope she can stay healthy this year and go out with a bang.  She made 7 three pointers on her way to 23 points and grabbed 3 boards.  She isn’t the player she used to be when she was the best in the world, but she can still help this team win basketball games.  I surely don’t expect 7 threes every night, but I think this system is perfect for her to have a really good season in. 

Sophie Cunningham came off the bench and had 6 points on 4 shots and grabbed 4 rebounds and had an assist and a steal.  Spicey really needed to look to score more.  She is someone who can get into the paint and get a good look.  She needs to do more of that going forward as she has done the last couple of years. (quick aside, I can’t believe this is Sophie’s 6th season already. I would have guessed 4th at most).  

Sug Sutton only played 17 minutes but had 2 assists and 2 steals and a rebound.  She only made 1 of her 4 shots for two points.  The Mercury suddenly have a lot of guards and even with their four-guard lineup, Sutton is going to take a bit of a back seat this season.  I am sure we will still get a big game and some big shots from her every now and then. 

Now for the new girls.  I’ll start with Rebecca Allen because she had a bit of a funny game in that for the first 5 or so possessions all she did was stand in the corner the entire possession just spotting up.  She didn’t move at all. My first thought was “Is that all she does?  Sophie can do that.  Why did we need her?”  Then as the game moved on, she started playing ball and I liked what I saw.   She looks like she is taller than the 6’2” she is listed at.  I was surprised to see she is listed as a guard.  She is rather long and lengthy.  She shot the ball pretty well, she rebounded and passed well and played some good defense.  She had a really well-rounded game.  Hopefully this is the player she is.  (I have to say the last couple of seasons as the Mercury had no chance of winning, my attention to the league waned.  I still watched every Merc game but I just didn’t care about the rest of the league so I had no idea who these ladies were when Phoenix acquired them). Allen ended up with 14 points making 3 of 6 longs balls while pulling down 7 boards and racking up 2 assists, 2 steals, and a block.  She and Diana were the only two Mercury players who played significant minutes and were a plus player.  They were both a plus 3. 

Natasha Cloud looks like she is going to be the Woman this year, at least until Griner gets back.  Everything ran through her and she played with great confidence and was in control.  She didn’t shoot well from three (1 for 6) but she had a big game with a team high 8 rebounds, a team high 7 helpers, and steal to go along with her 14 points.  She really looked to get to the hoop throughout the game and scored 8 of her points at the rim on a night where Phoenix struggled in the paint.  Her game numbers were well above her career averages so maybe they will not last, but she made a very good first impression. 

Kahleah Copper is another player to show up to the Mercury with a lot of confidence.  Like everyone else on the Mercury tonight, Copper got off to a slow start but played better as the game went along.  Her 19 points were the second highest on the team behind Taurasi and she had 4 rebounds and 4 assists as well.

Natasha Mack had a surprisingly productive game.  I say surprisingly because she only played 20 minutes and this is only her 5^th ever WNBA game, but she had 6 boards, 5 assists and 3 blocks.  She only took 4 shots making one of them for 2 points but the rest of her night was very good.  Those would be great numbers for a back up Big but for now, she is pretty much the only big they have.  Her touch around the basket left a lot to be desired but it’s only the first game.  She looks like she will do a solid job holding down the middle until BG returns. 

Liz Dixon and Mikiah Herbert Harrington (Now known as MH2) only played 6 minutes a piece.  Neither of them scored.  Dixon grabbed 3 offensive rebounds and MH2 grabbed a defensive board and had a block.  The only woman not to get on the floor for the Merc was Morgan Bertsch.  She was listed as “probable-International Clearance”.  I have absolutely no idea what that means.  But my guess is that if she was not cleared recently enough to be on the injury report, then she must not have been able to practice with the team yet and that is probably why she did not see any action.  She is 6’4” and shot 44.4% from three last season so I am guessing that once she get acclimated, she will have a role on this team. 

One last note from tonight’s game.  The two announcers for the game talked a lot about Megan Gustafson during the game.  They praised the newest member of the Aces a lot and talked about her improvements on the court.  Yet, not once did they mention that she spent the last two seasons playing for the Mercury.  You would think, in a game against her old team, you might want to mention that.  I don’t know why but this really bothered me.  Maybe they did and I missed it. If so, my bad. For the record, I am a big fan of Megan and was sad to see her go.  I hope she does well on the Aces, in games not involving the Mercury.     

Well, this ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated.  Again, I don’t know how many game reviews I will do but we will definitely be watching the Mercury season and checking in from time to time.