These WNBA Finals haven't been much fun so far if you're a fan of the Phoenix Mercury, as the team has dropped its first two games. The first one was close. The second was my least favorite kind of basketball game — one where one team goes on a run that puts the lead in the low double-digits, which is too close of a lead to turn the game off but too big of a lead for there to really be much hope of a comeback.
Here's the thing, though. There's this old saying that a playoff series doesn't start until a road team wins, and we're heading to Phoenix for Game 3. You can't really say this is over unless the Aces take one of the next two games, right?
But, can the Mercury even get a home win in this series? The team looks overmatched at times and when Vegas has the luxury of having a player like Jackie Young as its No. 2 option, phew — it sure looks like it's lights out for the Mercury, right?
Maybe! Or maybe not. Here's three things that could help Phoenix avoid the sweep.
Home court matters!
This is going to sound dumb, but maybe one key for the Mercury here is just playing the next two games at home.
Phoenix was 15-7 at home in the regular season, which wasn't the best mark in the league, but it was still the fifth-best home record in the WNBA. So far in the postseason, the Mercury are 3-1 at home.
Game 1 was close, and Game 2 started out close before the Aces pulled away. Maybe the change in venue is all the Mercury need to improve their shooting and get a win or two.
Get the ball out of DeWanna Bonner's hands
Satou Sabally has had some nightmare games as far as shooting goes earlier in the playoffs, but the Mercury let her shoot through it and it's led them to the Finals. So, maybe they should also just let DeWanna Bonner shoot through her shooting woes?
Nah. Don't do that. Bonner's a liability at this point. In Game 1, she shot 30.8 percent overall and just 28.6 percent from 3-point range, with the Mercury getting outscored by 12 points with her on the floor in a game they only lost by three points.
In Game 2, Bonner shot less, which was probably good, but she still only made one of her five attempts. Her plus/minus of -9 wasn't the worst on the team, but it still wasn't great. Bonner isn't contributing positive things right now.
So, what can Phoenix do? Well, getting Sami Whitcomb more touches could help the team with its shooting, but you give up a lot of size that way. Maybe it's time to get really weird and see if Kitija Laksa can play some minutes, or maybe it's just time to rely even more heavily on the team's starting lineup.
Maybe try going bigger to guard A'ja — maybe
One thing that fundamentally makes this a nightmare matchup for Phoenix is that the Aces have A'ja Wilson. Sure, Phoenix can try to match Alyssa Thomas up on her, but that's clearly not working. It might be time to throw some size at her, if only for short stretches.
The problem there is that likely means Phoenix would need to try putting Kalani Brown out there, something that could backfire big time. Brown has the size that Phoenix is sorely missing in the frontcourt, and she theoretically could stop Wilson on some post-up attempts.
Except, Brown's also a pretty slow-footed player, so it wouldn't be difficult for Becky Hammon to simply see that she's in the game and game-plan around that, getting Wilson out into space to take advantage of that. I'm not sure this is a move you make in Game 3, and I'm not sure it's a move you make if you win Game 3, but if Phoenix loses and is facing a 3-0 deficit, the Mercury won't have much to lose at that point, so maybe you just get weird with it and see if you can use Brown's size to temporarily get Wilson out of rhythm.
It's admittedly not a great idea, but the Mercury just aren't built for this matchup. Sometimes, desperation leads to some strange decisions, and sometimes those strange decisions turn out to not be totally awful ones.