Phoenix Mercury and Las Vegas Aces will meet for the first time in a regular session on Sunday when they will fight in a Commissioner Cup game in Las Vegas.
The mercury (7-4) Commissioner Cup plays 3–2, while the aces (5-4) are 2-2 as both teams enter the victory.
Las Vegas ralled the 88-84 win over Dallas Wings on Friday, despite not ruining WNBA MVP Aja Wilson, which is in the Constion Protocol.
But Jackie Young and Jewel Loid scored 28 and 21 points respectively for their absence, as Aces won the game between three-market homestands.
Wilson excluded Thursday’s game with a head injury against Los Angeles and remained unconscious. He has an average of 20.9 points, 9.6 rebounds and 4.0 assistance per game.
In his postgame interview on Friday night, Las Vegas head coach Becky Hamon talked about being proud of the way his team fought despite that adverseness.
“I liked our fight,” Hamon said. “This is not perfect. There are times where we look like five gummy bears from there. Just the real furious with the ball. Really defensively. And then suddenly we turn into really really flexible soldiers.
Hamon said, “Talk of divided personality, I am trying to deal with it. But please give me to the soldiers.”
Phoenix can get back his best player on Sunday, one chance returns to Kahleh copper lineup.
Head coach Nat Tibbets said the copper is “trending towards playing on Sunday.”
Copper passed through a left knee orthroscopy and was expected to miss for four to six weeks. Returning before expectation would be a major boost for mercury as experienced guards led the team in 21.1 points per game scoring in their first season in Phoenix last year.
If the copper returns, she will join a lineup, who welcomed Natasha Mac and Elisa Thomas in a 93–80 win over Dallas on Wednesday.
Both of them helped promote a strong defensive effort against wings, some mercury is expected to move forward.
“I felt our energy was defensively better because people were playing less minutes,” the tibbets said. “This is what we need because we continue to connect Kahli. We have got a deep team, and we work hard. And I think we can play hard when minutes go down.”
Thomas is an average of 14.5 points per game, while Satou leads mercury in scoring and rebounding (20.5 points and 7.8 rebounds).
Young is one of the four averages in double figures for the aces, putting 19.4 points. Chelsea Gray (14.6) and Lloyd (10.4) are also a double-design average game for Las Vegas.
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