PHOENIX – Embarrassed.
That was the word Kahleah Copper used to describe the Phoenix Mercury’s historic blowout loss to the Las Vegas Aces on July 11.
“We’re embarrassed about it,” the 11-year WNBA veteran said after practice at the Mountain America Performance Center on Wednesday. “And we should have been.”
The 106-58 loss in Las Vegas is tied for the third-largest blowout in WNBA history, but it was just the latest setback in a season that has fallen well short of expectations after a WNBA Finals appearance in 2025 against the Aces.
The Mercury sit at 8-17 and 13th in the WNBA standings, 5½ games behind the eighth and final playoff spot with 19 games remaining in the regular season.
Following the devastating loss to Las Vegas, the Mercury headed to Minnesota to take on the league-leading Lynx (19-6) on July 13. Although Phoenix suffered another loss, the game was a nail-biter, with the Lynx winning 104-100.
While it would be easy to take another loss as a negative, coach Nate Tibbetts is taking the positives from the outing.
“Tough road trip. The Vegas game was extremely disappointing,” Tibbetts said. “I think that the Minnesota game was like, ‘Who do we want to be?’ And I thought we came out and really competed against the Lynx, which is one of the better teams in the league.”
Copper also saw positives.
“I think we just got to see our toughness,” she said. “Just how we weren’t satisfied with how we played in Vegas, but we came out swinging like our backs were against the wall.”
The defeat in Minnesota was the Mercury’s fourth loss in a row but also their fourth loss this season by four points or fewer. Even though Phoenix fought to the very end, scoring 51 points in the second half, turnovers continued to plague the offense. The Mercury have committed 31 in their past two games.
“We’ve really struggled turning it over. I think points off turnovers the last five games, I think we’re at the bottom,” Tibbetts said. “That just puts a lot of pressure on your defense. Obviously, part of my job is to put our best players in positions to create mismatches. At times, I think we’ve found that; I think there’s times that we could do a better job of that.”
Copper also pointed to the team’s continuous offensive struggles as an area for growth.
“We just have to understand our margin of error is very slim,” Copper said. “So whether it’s turnovers, live ball turnovers, being able to get a stop and then being able to get offensively secure and rebounds, I think the more we just understand what our margin of error is, we’ll be better off in those tight games.”
Despite the team’s offensive struggles, Copper remains a focal point of the Mercury offense, leading Phoenix in scoring at 20.5 points per game after dropping 26 points against the Lynx.
After a slow start to the season, Copper has become a consistent offensive force, scoring at least 20 points in eight of her past 10 games.
“Throughout the season, it’s been just frustrating,” Copper said. “But watching the film and just seeing my personal growth, where it’s like I’m playing without the ball, I know when to go and be a screener and when to tell my teammates to go get it because of the different coverages I’m getting. So I just love seeing that growth out of me where I don’t have to be so ball dominant and I can play without the ball.”
Even in her 11th season, Copper believes she’s still got it.
“Being able to one-play at every level, but really get back to who I am, get downhill, get into the rim, sometimes I’m like, ‘Damn, I’m really like year 11,’ but I can still get there,” Copper said. “So one, it’s a blessing, but (I’m) just continuing to just polish those things and continuing to work on my finishes.”
Looking ahead, every game will be critical as the Mercury push for the eighth seed and the final playoff spot. If the Mercury cannot make up the ground, it would mark just the fourth time in the last 20 seasons that they have missed the playoffs.
“We’ve been talking about it. Every game is a big game,” Tibbetts said. “We’re all playing for the eight seed. You don’t have many more times to not say, ‘Hey, we didn’t get that one. We didn’t get that one.’ The time is now and we’ve got to play like it.”
Games on Friday and Sunday against the 6-18 Connecticut Sun at Mortgage Matchup Center afford the Mercury a good opportunity to get back on track.
“I think just us being realistic and making a push to be even in a conversation of a playoff push,” Copper said of the team’s mindset. “All these games are important and you’re going to be able to push it with the right mindset.”
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