Phoenix Mercury prevails in season-opening win

Based on the training camp comments from head coach Nate Tibbetts and players, Mercury basketball referenced a quick, fluid, aggressive style of play. But, through two preseason games, Mercury basketball hadn’t been successful.

Until Saturday night.

Saturday, all the key aspects that the Mercury had spent weeks talking about were exemplified in the team’s 81-59 season-opening victory over the Seattle Storm. Lockdown defense, combined with efficient offense, helped Phoenix get off to a 1-0 start in impressive fashion.

“We expect to guard,” Tibbetts told reporters postgame. “We know we need to get better each and every game. Thought it was a really good job from our group coming out and setting the tone. I really liked what our guards did on the ball, and I thought our bigs were just fantastic in pick-and-roll. We made it tough on them all night.”

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Defense sets the tone

After having the fourth-worst defensive rating in the league in 2024, Tibbetts wanted his 2025 team to establish an identity as defensive stalwarts.

In Saturday’s season-opener, the Mercury looked the part, holding Seattle to 33.3% shooting from the field and just 17.6% from three. Skylar Diggins (21) and Nneka Ogwumike (12) were the only Storm players to score more than six points and hit more than two shots from the field.

“[Ogwumike and Diggins] could easily go off for 40 every night, so you definitely have to keep both honest and contain them,” Sabally told the media postgame. “But we did an amazing job on Nneka, and I mean, Sky is excellent, and just left-hand drives and those pull-up shots, but we’ll take the pull-up shot. So we really executed what we wanted to do. And I think you can see that.”

Outside of that pair, the rest of the team converted on just 23.1% of shots. Guards Monique Akoa Makani and Lexi Held extended Phoenix’s defense well past the 3-point line, applying immediate pressure to the Storm’s backcourt players.

On the back end, Sabally, Alyssa Thomas and Kalani Brown used their size to clog up the paint, preventing the storm from passing freely in and out of the lane. Each player fulfilled their role, coming together to keep Seattle under 60 points.

“We’ve been told the whole time in practice, ‘Have your hand up. Be physical. Set the tone on defense,’ And [Thomas] does that every day, and I really do that too,” Sabally said. “So, just communicating among these pick-and-rolls. 

“Having [Akoa Makani] out there that’s really pressuring Sky, that’s big. Having Kalani out there to clean everything up in the end, that’s super big, and I think we were all on one string. So it’s really not just two players, because there are five players on the court. It was really like a five-string defense.”

An underappreciated element to Phoenix’s defensive success was its ability to clean up the boards. The Mercury won the rebounding battle 38-29, with 34 coming on the defensive end. 

The starting frontcourt trio of Thomas, Sabally and Kathryn Westbeld combined for 18, while reserve posts Brown and Alexis Prince contributed four and eight, respectively. 

“I thought our defense was fantastic,” Tibbetts said. “Our on-ball defense, our pick-and-roll coverage, our toughness, our grit, and you can’t be a good defense without finishing possessions. And so we did that, and that’s important.”

No Copper, no problem

Leading up to Saturday’s opener, the Valley buzzed with excitement for the Mercury’s new Big Three of Satou Sabally, Alyssa Thomas and Kahleah Copper. However, the excitement quickly turned to concern when the team announced Saturday afternoon that Copper would miss four to six weeks after undergoing an arthroscopy on her left knee.

“I think life is a game of adjustments,” Tibbetts told the media pregame. “And I think it’s the beauty of sports and the shitty part about sports. People don’t care about injuries, the games just keep coming. I feel really bad for Kah. She had a great camp. I feel unfortunate for our team. … But this is what it is, and we can’t be afraid of it. We got to embrace it.”

Embracing the necessity to adjust is exactly what Sabally and Thomas did, combining for 47 of the Mercury’s 81 points while shooting at a 56.7% clip on the night.

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Thomas found the first two points of the night, and the Mercury’s season, 50 seconds into the game. Defended by Nneka Ogwumike at the left elbow, Thomas got a screen from Monique Akoa Makani, put the ball on the floor once, and spun between Skylar Diggins and a recovering Ogwumike to get to the cup and scoop the ball into the hoop.

Of the Mercury’s eight baskets in the first quarter, Thomas scored or assisted on five of them, establishing her role as the director of the offense early on.

“[Thomas] is going to have [the ball] a lot,” Tibbetts said. “I’ve kind of said it, she’s going to play the four, I guess she’s going to play the five, and I just talked to her this morning, she’s going to have a lot more point guard duties also. So, yeah, I think her passing is contagious. I mean, how can you not with the plays that she makes for others? And, yeah, it’s a good step.”

Sabally, the recipient of a pair of Thomas’ game-high five assists, started hot and stayed there the entire night. In moments where it seemed Phoenix’s offense had hit a lull, Sabally was consistently able to get the energy back up with a three or a bucket inside. Sabally’s 27 points were the most by a Mercury player in her debut with the team, and they set the tone for the type of season she could have with Phoenix.

“I was feeling it,” Sabally said. “I was hot, but we were also working for it the whole time in practice at camp. We were definitely being worked out, and all these extra shots that you take, too. So obviously I was hot today. Next game, it might be another player, but I think we really built an offense that enables us to be ourselves.”

Although the team will be without Copper for its opening stretch of games, there’s still an opportunity for the other two prongs of the Mercury’s star trio to build chemistry with each other that can help the team get off to a strong start regardless of player availability.

Saturday night, as the ball flew from one side of the court to the other and players figured out when and where to make the extra pass, the intentionality behind the team’s effort to build chemistry, especially between Sabally and Thomas, became apparent.

“[The chemistry] has grown tremendously,” Sabally said. “I think also by just playing against [Thomas] super long, and always having to guard her, and she was guarding me, we know each other pretty well. But just communicating in practice, becoming together, and we had a lot of miscommunication at first with passes or back door, like, what does she like? What do I like? And we just talked it through.”

Valley debuts

Of the 12 players named to Phoenix’s opening day roster, only two were returning players from last year’s squad. Due to injuries and overseas commitments, eight of the nine players available Saturday night had never donned a Phoenix Mercury jersey.

Still, when it came time to step up, several of those players, many with limited to no WNBA experience, played key roles in Phoenix’s win.

Rookie guard Monique Akoa Makani had already proven her value after getting the start and playing well in Phoenix’s first preseason game against the Las Vegas Aces. An injury kept her out of the second exhibition against the Golden State Valkyries, but she made her return Saturday.

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In 17 minutes, the lowest of the five starters, Akoa Makani, had the highest plus-minus on the team, finishing plus-24 on the night. Her impact didn’t translate to the stat sheet, but her intensity on defense against one of the league’s best guards and her navigation of the offense were critical to Saturday’s result.

“We’re extremely excited about [Akoa Makani],” Tibbetts said pregame. “She’s a young player that we think has a chance to be a good player in this league, and we’re going to put her out there and see what she can get done, and she’s got the physical ability to get a lot of stuff done. I think she’s ready for the moment.”

Akoa Makani wasn’t the only rookie guard to make the roster and have a WNBA debut worthy of praise. In 22 minutes, Lexi Held showed off her athleticism and speed on both ends of the floor. Her quick feet made it hard to get around her on defense. Of her 11 points, six came from layups, opportunities she created for herself with strategic bursts of speed and rapid acceleration from the first step.

“For her first game, [Held] just has some swag to her,” Sabally said. “I really like her game. She doesn’t let anyone else speed her up, and I think you will be able to see a lot of great things from her.”

Arguably, the most impressive debut performance came from 29-year-old rookie Kathryn Westbeld. Having tried to make a WNBA roster in the past, before building a positive reputation overseas, Westbeld finally got her chance with Phoenix, and Saturday, she made the most of it.

Starting in the absence of forward Natasha Mack, Westbeld scored nine points while corralling five rebounds. Six of her nine points came from outside the 3-point line. Defensively, she skillfully managed matchups against Nneka Ogwumike and Ezi Magbegor in the post.

“I thought she did fantastic,” Tibbetts said. “I’ll give Kat a bunch of credit. … Every game that we’ve played, she’s played well, and she knows what to do. She’s the ultimate professional. … Kat started the game extremely well, hit some big shots, and then in the third quarter, I just couldn’t take her out. She was doing everything right.”

With Mack expected to miss two to three weeks with a lower back injury, Westbeld has the potential to develop into a reliable piece in the Mercury’s rotation that will help build out their depth once they’re back to full strength.

“It’s definitely been a long journey for me,” Westbeld said postgame. “I was undrafted in 2018. I’ve been playing overseas the past six years, and it’s been definitely a grind. So to come out here and be able to get a start and get a great win for the first game of the season, it’s just really special.

“I had an idea [I would start] within the last couple days, but you always have to be ready when your name is called. I was overseas, and I played a lot of big games and had big moments, and you just always have to stay ready, and that’s what we did. … It’s just who wants to step up at the right moment and be courageous enough to take it.”

If Phoenix continues to perform the way they did Saturday night, they may be able to pick up some impressive wins to start the year, even without Copper and Mack.

“[The organization] really found a great group of people and amazing women that just come together and want to work,” Sabally said. “And if that’s being shown the results, we have a lot of fun because we put in so much work, and yeah, obviously we like the results.”