Mercury unable to gain ground against Minnesota Lynx in shorthanded loss

The Mercury hoped to repeat its previous outcome in its second consecutive game without Diana Taurasi and Skylar Diggins-Smith, but its effort fell short against a hungry Minnesota Lynx team.

Despite multiple individual career highs in scoring from the team, the Mercury (14-20) dropped out of its playoff spot in Wednesday’s 86-77 loss at Footprint Center. The team now sits at 10th overall with two games remaining.

Shey Peddy had a career game with 21 points, along with a double-double with 10 rebounds (seven defensive, three offensive).

“That just speaks to the spirit of this team. And they’re giving everything they’ve got,” Mercury head coach Vanessa Nygaard said. “How many times are you going to have five or six career highs this late in the season? And that just speaks to how much fight we have. I’m extremely proud to have coached this group tonight.”

Peddy’s control on the floor set the stage for other teammates to find career highs, including Megan Gustafson’s 15 points to help the bench. Peddy remained patient with the ball after grabbing a defensive rebound before finding Gustafson on the perimeter for a step back 3-pointer at 4:25 in the second quarter.

“She’s a great facilitator and she’s obviously a great scorer, so it’s really fun to play with her on the court. She’s a great communicator too, whether she’s pulling me aside and telling me what to do on the next possession, she’s a great teammate to have,” Gustafson said.

The Mercury knew it would have to play without Taurasi ahead of the game after she was ruled out for the remainder of the regular season on Monday. But the team found out before the game that Diggins-Smith would miss a second-straight game because she was not with the team due to personal reasons.

“We have gone through this on Saturday, so we were prepared and we knew what it would be like to play without Sky and Dee. One day at a time, just moving forward,” Nygaard said.

Fresh off a 14-point first quarter in the previous game, Diamond DeShields was primed to make an impact again. However, the Lynx defense zeroed in on her, forcing her to step back into a facilitating role. A reduced role did allow DeShields to match her career-high in assists with 10. But she also struggled with ball handling at points and had seven turnovers.

“Diamond is a super dynamic player and I’m sure she’s not happy to see what her turnovers were tonight. Realizing with what our roster looks like tonight, she’s going to get a lot of attention from the other team,” Nygaard said.

The Mercury stayed close to the Lynx in the first half and even tried to find separation in the second quarter with an 8-2 run facilitated by Peddy and Sophie Cunningham. Although the Mercury outscored the Lynx by two points in the second quarter, the Lynx shot 50 percent from the 3-point line with three 3s in the second quarter.

Cunningham sparked the Mercury at the end of the third quarter with back-to-back 3-pointers that gave the Mercury a 60-59 lead heading into the fourth quarter. The extra momentum carried over at the start of the fourth quarter when Cunningham and Peddy shot back-to-back 3s for a five-point lead.

Cunningham finished the game with a career-high six 3-pointers and led with 24 points.

In her final game at Footprint Center, retiring Lynx center Sylvia Fowles scored 16 points and nine rebounds. Jessica Shepard tallied a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds.

While the Mercury found success at the 3-point line with 13 of its 31 attempts going in, the sharp shooting was diminished by Lynx free throws. In the fourth quarter, the Lynx had 10 free throw attempts and scored 20 points from 24 trips to the line overall.

The Mercury made all of its eight free throws in the game.

“There’s two quarters where we didn’t shoot a free throw. Tell me how that’s OK? It’s not. The refs need to do a better job, that’s terrible on their end. We were working way too hard for them to be kind of blowing the game like that for us,” Cunningham said.

Wednesday’s loss for the Mercury puts the team in a four-way tie based on their records as of Wednesday night with the Atlanta Dream, New York Liberty and the Lynx for the final two remaining spots in the playoffs, but the Lynx and the Dream currently occupy the final two spots based on tie breakers.

The Mercury will face the Dallas Wings on Friday night at Footprint Center in the first of its last two games. The Wings have already clinched a playoff spot.

Reach the reporter at jenna.ortiz@arizonarepublic.com or 602-647-4122. Follow her on Twitter @jennarortiz. 

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Mercury fall behind in WNBA playoff race in loss to Minnesota