Sabally, Thomas power Mercury over Storm in season opener without Copper

Yahoo

21-05-2025

The Phoenix Mercury's post-Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner era began with a bang in their 81-59 blowout victory at home over the Seattle Storm on May 17.
The regular season debut for their new Big 3 of Alyssa Thomas, Satou Sabally and Kahleah Copper together was delayed. Just hours before Phoenix's season-opening home game against the Seattle Storm, the Mercury announced that Copper underwent successful arthroscopic left knee surgery and will return in the next four to six weeks.
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"I was sad, honestly," Sabally said after the game about when she first heard Copper was sidelined through June. "She's just someone that's so vocal on the court, off the court, and genuinely such a good soul. You hate to see someone down like that, but God always shows you when it's time to rest.
"I think she had an amazing offseason (in Unrivaled). She had an amazing Olympic year. Now she will just take time to heal and she'll be back in no time," Sabally continued.
Thomas and Sabally compensated for the Mercury's top returning scorer's absence by shining in their debuts for Phoenix.
Sabally had the game-high 27 points, added six rebounds, two assists, one steal and one block. Thomas produced 20 points, seven rebounds, a team-high five assists, and two steals. Sabally started hot by hitting six of her first nine attempts, including three from deep, and Thomas made five of her first eight.
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Seattle's top performers were former Mercury All-Star Skylar Diggins (team-high 21 points, four assists, three rebounds) and Nneka Ogwumike (12 points, seven rebounds).
"It would too bold to let one of them go off because they could easily go for 40 any night," Sabally said. "You definitely have to keep both honest and contain them, but we did an amazing job on Nneka. And I mean Sky's excellent on those left-hand drives and those pull-up shots, but we'll take the pull-up shots. We really executed what we wanted to do and I think you could see that."
After the glitz and pyrotechnics of the Mercury's elaborate team introduction, Thomas ignited the team's energy to match the hyped X-Factor crowd. Last season's MVP candidate scored the first bucket from a slick spin move off the dribble at the nail and split two defenders to get into the paint for a smooth layup finish.
"Anytime that you have a crowd that's behind you like that, it just fuels you more," Thomas said. "As you can see, we were excited on the court within ourselves and to have the crowd behind us just as excited, the X-Factor is a great fan base."
Phoenix led Seattle all night, held a double-digit advantage for most of the game, and was up by 14 points twice during the first half. After Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts pulled out Thomas, Sabally and his other starters at 4 minutes left, the margin stretched to 27 at 1:43 remaining.
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The Mercury were also without their forward/center Natasha Mack (lower back), who's sidelined for approximately two to three weeks. Mack was the Mercury's backup big for Griner last season, and averaged 3.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.1 assists through 11 starts and 40 games played.
Despite being shorthanded, Tibbetts said during his pregame media availability that Seattle's physical style of play with their size and length requires his team to outrebound them collectively.
The Mercury outhustled the Storm on the glass 38-29, shot 51.7% and held the Storm to a meager 33.3%, shared the ball well with 19 assists on 30 makes, and dominated the paint 42-30. The Mercury's only drawback was their 17 turnovers that allowed 18 points, whereas the Storm had 13 giveaways that conceded 16.
"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. So we did that and that's important."
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sabally, Thomas power Mercury over Storm in season debut without Copper