Mercury vs. Fire: DeWanna Bonner's Season-High 19 Lifts Short-Handed Phoenix Past Portland 78-72

Phoenix showed up at Moda Center without Alyssa Thomas, without Kahleah Copper and fresh off a stretch in which winning had become more of a rumor than a habit. DeWanna Bonner made sure none of that mattered. When Portland grabbed a one-point lead with under five minutes left, she answered with a corner 3 as the shot clock died, and the Mercury spent the rest of Friday night making free throws and watching the Fire throw it away.

The Phoenix Mercury beat the Portland Fire 78-72 in front of 12,046 fans. Bonner scored a season-high 19, Natasha Mack added 16, and a short-handed road team won despite getting outrebounded, outshot from 3 and pushed to the edge in the final minutes.

Phoenix Led Almost All Night, Which Made the Ending Worse

The Mercury were in front for 95 percent of this game, and Portland's biggest lead all night was a single point. Phoenix took a 21-16 lead after one, went up 38-34 at the half and held a 55-51 edge going to the fourth. The lead reached 10 at one point, and when it was 61-54 with 6:37 left, the visitors looked like they might cruise.

Then the Fire finally found something. Portland ran off eight straight in just under two minutes, capped by a Teja Oblak step-back 3 off a Karlie Samuelson feed that made it 62-61 with 4:40 left, and the building started to believe. The next few minutes were terrific.

Bonner answered Oblak immediately. Oblak made two free throws to tie it at 64. Mack hit an 18-footer. Sarah Ashlee Barker buried a 24-footer to give Portland a 67-66 lead with 3:02 left. And then Jovana Nogic scored from five feet with 2:46 to go for a 68-67 Phoenix lead, which turned out to be the last Mercury field goal of the night and the last lead change of the game. Phoenix did not need another bucket. It had the foul line.

Bonner Still Has It

Bonner's line was the full buffet: 19 points on 6-of-15 shooting, 3-of-8 from deep, a perfect 4-of-4 at the line, five rebounds, five assists, three blocks and two steals in 34 minutes. Her previous high this season was 16, and she had scored 10 or fewer in six of the previous seven games she played, so this was a real jolt for a team that badly needed one. She looked like the most comfortable person in the building at the exact moment everyone else was starting to get nervous.

Mack was terrific as well, scoring 16 on 7-of-11 shooting and hitting that tough 18-footer with the game hanging. Noemie Brochant and Monique Akoa Makani each scored 11, with Brochant going 2-for-2 from 3 and Akoa Makani collecting three steals. Nogic went 0-for-7 from deep and still found a way to matter, handing out a team-high six assists along with that final basket. Lexi Held gave Phoenix eight off the bench and went 5-of-5 at the line.

Barker led Portland with 15 points and seven rebounds. Karlie Samuelson opened 4-for-4 from deep and finished 4-of-5 for 13, and Oblak was perfect from the floor with 11 points and four assists, though she also had four turnovers. The Fire's bench was the best thing about their night. Oblak, Samuelson, Frieda Buhner and Luisa Geiselsoder were all plus-9 or better, while all five starters finished in the red, four of them at minus-15 or worse.

Ten of Twelve When It Counted

The game was decided at the line in the final three minutes. Starting at the 2:13 mark, Phoenix went 10-of-12 at the stripe, and the makes came from five different hands, including all four of Bonner's tries. Nogic and Brochant each made one of two, while Akoa Makani and Mack were perfect, so there was no single hero and no obvious player for Portland to target. Every time the Fire got a stop or a basket, somebody in a Mercury jersey calmly walked to the stripe and pushed the lead back out.

Portland kept swinging. Bridget Carleton made two with 37.3 seconds left, and Barker's 25-footer with 18.3 seconds to go cut it to 77-72. It just came too late. The damage had been done over the previous three-plus quarters, one giveaway at a time.

Stats That Matter

• 23-8: Phoenix's advantage in points off turnovers. In a six-point game, that is your whole explanation.
• 20: Portland's turnovers, compared to 12 for the Mercury.
• 10-3: The steals margin, with Akoa Makani taking three by herself.
• 9-0: Fast-break points. The Fire did not score a single one.
• 32-24: Portland's rebounding edge, one of several categories it won without getting a result out of it.

Where Everybody Stands

Phoenix improves to 4-8 and 3-4 on the road. The Mercury have now won two straight, following a 72-68 win at Seattle on Wednesday, and that comes right after a six-game losing streak. It is a small sample, and the record still needs a lot of repair work, but getting the second of those wins without two usual starters is not nothing. They go to Golden State on Tuesday night.

Portland slips to 6-6 and 4-4 at home. It has lost two straight after a 95-77 defeat at Golden State on Tuesday, and the Fire head to Los Angeles on Sunday. The good news is that they have clearly got enough shooting to hang with anyone. They made 10-of-26 from 3 and shot the same 42 percent from the floor as Phoenix. The bad news is that all of it matters a lot less if you keep handing the ball to the other team.

Moneyball, but the Market Inefficiency Is Holding the Ball

Portland had the better 3-point night, the better rebounding night and a bench that outplayed its own starters. It lost by six because it turned the ball over 20 times. There is a whole genre of sports movie where a scrappy team finds a hidden edge in the numbers, and this one would be the most boring entry yet: a short-handed Mercury team discovers that you can beat people simply by not throwing the ball to them. It will not win any Oscars. It did get Phoenix a win in Portland with two usual starters out, and on Friday night, that was all the plot it needed.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press.