Kahleah Copper scored 21 of her 31 points after halftime and Kelsey Plum added 20 in her Phoenix debut as the Mercury beat the Sky 106-101.
Kahleah Copper scored 21 of her 31 points after halftime and Kelsey Plum added 20 in her Phoenix debut as the Mercury beat the Chicago Sky 106-101 on Monday night at Wintrust Arena.
Chicago led 99-92 when Courtney Vandersloot drove for a layup with 3:22 to play. Alyssa Thomas scored the next seven points, closing the stretch with a driving bank shot that tied the game at 99 with 2:03 left. Copper split a pair at the line with 1:30 remaining to put Phoenix ahead. Kamilla Cardoso answered with a putback at 1:13.
With 53.2 seconds on the clock, Plum hit a corner 3-pointer for a 103-101 lead.
After a timeout with 10 seconds left, DeWanna Bonner blocked a driving layup by Vandersloot and made two free throws at the other end. Copper stole a Gabriela Jaquez pass with 3.2 seconds remaining and made 1 of 2 at the line.
Copper said the two teams had reached the point of trading baskets with Chicago in front, and that the Mercury told each other in a timeout to get three stops in a row.
"That's just having a high IQ," Copper said. "You know where the ball had been going the last few possessions. I'm looking at the inbounder. Their action was a little bit delayed. I would've had to lag anyway, so I just read it."
Thomas finished with 19 points, 15 rebounds, and 12 assists for the 27th triple-double of her career and her second of the season. She was 9-of-9 from the free throw line. Bonner added 14 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. Valeriane Ayayi scored 11 in 22 minutes off the bench.
Plum shot 6-of-10 from the field and 3-of-5 from 3-point range in 20 minutes on a minutes restriction. Monday was her first game since June 21. Phoenix acquired her from Los Angeles on Saturday for Monique Akoa Makani, a 2027 first-round pick, and a 2028 second-round pick. She is playing on a one-year contract and can reach free agency in the offseason.
Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts said he watched clips of Plum's games with Los Angeles on Sunday and thought she would fit naturally into what Phoenix already runs.
"Yeah, I mean, I was just telling our group, I don't think she's played in six weeks either, right? She's been out — I don't know if it's been five weeks or seven weeks, but it's been a while," Thibbetts explained. "And so to get in last night at 10:30, and to have one shootaround and come out and play the way she did — yeah, a hell of a first performance by her."
Thomas said she looked ahead to Plum after defensive rebounds to get her the ball on easy opportunities, with the minutes restriction in mind.
"I mean, KP, she knows how to score the ball," Thomas said. "We knew it would make a big difference for our team. It just gave us a lot more space to operate, and yeah, it makes it really hard to key on one player. So I'm super happy to have her. I mean, 20 points in 20 minutes is — that's crazy."
Phoenix shot 50.8% from the field, made 11-of-26 from 3-point range, and went 31-of-40 at the free throw line. Chicago attempted 25 free throws.
Vandersloot had 16 points and 10 assists, both season highs, in 26 minutes. Cardoso scored 16 points with 13 rebounds and 5 assists on 8-of-15 shooting and did not attempt a free throw. DiJonai Carrington also scored 16, in her third game since making her Sky debut on July 30, and went 7-of-12 at the line. Natasha Cloud added 13 points, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds and moved past Skylar Diggins into sole possession of No. 8 on the WNBA's all-time assists list. Diggins did not play because of a right knee injury. Azura Stevens was not with the team for personal reasons.
Sydney Taylor scored 14 points in 17 minutes. She played 2:49 of the second half before leaving with a left groin injury.
Sky coach Tyler Marsh said he did not have an update on Taylor yet and would pass one along when the team had it.
"Yeah, of course, it's tough," Marsh said. "We didn't have her for most of the second half. She's been our leading scorer the second part of the season, so yeah, it's tough not to have her. We're already down Azurá. But again, we still had our opportunities to win the game, so there are no excuses there. But yeah, it's tough. You got to continue to — it's the next person up. You got to continue to figure it out.
"I thought we had some good contributions from some others," he explained. "Gabs goes from playing four minutes last game to playing 20-plus this game, and she gave really good minutes today, so credit to her. But we'll evaluate to see where Sydney's at, and hopefully we'll have her for LA."
Chicago won points in the paint 48-40, second-chance points 12-8, fast-break points 15-8, and assists 29-26. The Sky outscored Phoenix 30-23 in the third quarter and shot 73.3% in the period. Phoenix had led by 12 in the second.
Marsh said Carrington's 12 free throw attempts accounted for half of Chicago's total and stopped a couple of Phoenix runs.
"She was good. I thought both her and Tash were good today," Marsh said. "For the most part, I think that we won just about every phase by the numbers anyway. We won transition, we won second chance, we won the paint. We tied on the glass. We had more assists. We turned the ball over less.
"Like, we won almost every phase of the game, if you go by the stat sheet, outside of the fouls. You put a team on the line 15 more times, it's tough to win, especially when you have the firepower that they have."
Vandersloot said Chicago fouled too much down the stretch, put Phoenix on the line, and let the momentum shift.
"Yeah, I mean, we're hurt," Vandersloot said. "Obviously this is a huge game, just in where we are, but where they are, the standings, everything. We knew how important this is.
"You score 101 points on your home floor, you're supposed to win," she explained. "And it didn't go that way for us, so obviously we know that we're going to continue to do what we do, but this one hurts and, yeah, we're feeling it for sure."
There were nine lead changes and four ties. Attendance was 7,011.
Phoenix plays at Atlanta on Wednesday. Chicago hosts Los Angeles on Wednesday at Wintrust Arena, the third and final meeting between the teams this season, with the series tied 1-1.
