Per Griner just taking 5 shots: hard to believe they can win when she gets tossed some 15 minutes into the game for sticking her hand into Cappie P's face. Chicago win's on a putback at the buzzer that Griner may very well have rebounded/not allowed to happen if she was in the game.
However, I agree that the team seems to go through stages of playing with thorough disinterest.
As I mentioned in another thread, the Mercury were +11 without Griner.
This article looks funnier with each passing indifferent performance -
Why are these WNBA stars in Russia? It's not just about the money
This line is pretty good -
"She's... checked herself into a crash course on maturity -- taught by Taurasi." Well, how's that going for them? Taurasi got suspended for accumulated technicals and Griner got ejected for pushing Cappie way after the fact. I can sort of excuse "heat of the moment" stuff but she had plenty of time to walk away.
And this line has summed up the Mercury's season -
"It's all about right here," says Todd Troxel, an assistant for both UMMC and the Phoenix Mercury. "This is the big paycheck -- for all of us. We all love Phoenix, but ultimately it's all about here."
The Mercury are built around those two being superstars and yet the one Mercury player in top 10 of the PER rankings is....Penny Taylor.
As for the Sky, they have lost a bunch of close ones this year, so it's nice to get two last-second wins in a row and even that out a bit. They are shorthanded right now with Clarissa Dos Santos and Erika de Souza have left to join up with the Brazil national team. And Cheyenne Parker is banged up. So they are going with an 8 player rotation and just EDD, Breland, and Boyette for bigs. They can get to .500 before the Olympic break with a win against the Sun on Friday night.