The Phoenix Mercury were on the road in game one of their round one playoff series against the Las Vegas Aces, and for three quarters they played toe-to-toe being short-handed.
Star players continue to be out, Diana Taurasi (quad) and Skylar Diggins-Smith (personal reasons), and the 8th seeded Mercury looked to have no chance to even be in this contest.
That was not the case for most of 3 quarters as the Mercury were down only 2 points in the fourth quarter up until the 7:55 minute.
The woes continue to plague this team, as they lost another star contributor Shey Peddy late in the third quarter to a non-contact injury.
That is always bad news when it comes to an injury, and Peddy looked to be grabbing at her heel and was carried off the court. Her teammates were very emotional as they watched another key contributor go down to injury, knowing how hard Shey has worked to try and lead this shorthanded team to a playoff victory.In the 3rd quarter, both teams scored only 9 points, and there was a great defensive struggle until Peddy went down, then the Mercury lost its luster in the 4th quarter.
The Aces outscored the Mercury 28-14 in the 4th as the Aces Chelsea Gray hit a huge three-pointer that allowed them to not look back and go on to win 79-64.
How much more misery can one team take in one short season? , as the same exact thing happened in the playoffs last year, losing Kia Nurse to an ACL injury.
Not having star center Britney Griner set the tone for a rocky like season for the ladies of Phoenix, but they have been resilient to say the least, and have shown grit and fight no matter the circumstance.
Hanging around any longer in this series would be a miracle, and it’s most likely inevitable their tumultuous season will come to an end on Saturday night and these ladies can go and regroup for next year.
But we have seen crazier things.
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