Mercury vs. Storm: Natasha Mack Scores Career-High 16 as Phoenix Snaps Six-Game Skid, 72-68

The last time the Phoenix Mercury won a basketball game, it was May 15. So when Katie Lou Samuelson buried a 24-footer to make it 70-68 with 7.1 seconds left at Climate Pledge Arena, you could forgive anyone in Phoenix for hearing the sad trombone warming up.

Then Kahleah Copper made two more free throws, and Phoenix closed out a 72-68 win over the Seattle Storm on Wednesday night to end a six-game losing streak. Natasha Mack gave them the cushion they needed: a career-high 16 points on 7-of-7 shooting, plus 10 rebounds and three blocks in 26 minutes. It wasn't pretty. At no point did it threaten to become pretty. It counts the same.

Twelve Threes, Fifty-Five Tries

Start with the shooting, because somebody has to. Between them, these teams made 12 threes on 55 attempts, a number that should come with a content warning. Phoenix gave up the game's first three points, then scored 11 straight to lead 11-3 and took a 21-15 edge out of the first quarter. The Mercury's lead got as big as 13 and was still 36-27 in the final minute of the half.

Then came the wobbles. Seattle closed the half with six straight and opened the third with two more, an 8-0 run that turned a nine-point game into 36-35. The halftime numbers were their own little science experiment: Phoenix led 36-33 while shooting 35% from the field and 2 of 13 from three, because it went 10 of 13 at the line and the Storm hadn't taken a single free throw.

Natisha Hiedeman took over the third for Seattle, scoring 10 of her team's 22 in the period, and the Storm carried a 55-52 lead into the fourth. They led by as many as six at one point, and for a team in the middle of its own skid, that looked like a lifeline.

Mack Doesn't Miss

Mack's night is the kind of thing you check twice. Seven shots, seven makes. Two free throws, two makes. Ten rebounds, four of them offensive. Three blocks. Plus-11. The rest of the Mercury shot 17 of 57, so she wasn't merely efficient, she was playing a different sport from her teammates.

Alyssa Thomas had nine points, nine rebounds and five assists, including the feed for Mack's running layup that made it 63-59 at 4:39, though she also coughed it up four times. Copper's 16 points came on 4-of-14 shooting, rescued by a perfect 6 of 6 at the line and six rebounds. Monique Akoa Makani added 12 points and six boards. DeWanna Bonner scored 10 on 3-of-12 shooting, went 0 for 7 from three, and still made some of the biggest shots of the game.

For Seattle, Awa Fam was terrific in a losing effort, with 18 points, six rebounds and two blocks on 9-of-17 shooting. All of that damage came inside the arc, since she went 0 for 4 from outside it. Hiedeman finished with 15 points, four assists and no turnovers, though it took her 17 shots. Flau'jae Johnson had nine points and five assists to go with four giveaways, and Zia Cooke scored nine off the bench.

Bonner's 39 Seconds

Copper put Phoenix back on top 61-59 with 5:37 left, and the Mercury didn't trail again. The game really turned, though, after Fam's 5-foot hook cut the lead to 63-61 at 4:21. Bonner, whose outside shot had been on a milk carton all night, quit hunting threes. She hit a 19-foot pull-up off an Akoa Makani feed at 3:18, ran the floor for a layup at 2:53, then made a free throw at 2:39. That's five points in 39 seconds from a reserve who had missed every three she took, and it made the score 68-61.

Seattle still got its chances. Jade Melbourne made two at the line at 1:26. Cooke's running layup made it 68-65 with 18.9 left. Copper hit a pair, Samuelson hit that 24-footer, and the Mercury had to go back to the stripe one more time. Copper finished 4 for 4 in the last 17.1 seconds with the whole streak riding on her. Clutch isn't always a step-back jumper. Sometimes it's a free throw, nobody guarding you, and nearly three weeks of frustration in your hands.

The Stats That Matter

• 21 of 27 vs. 3 of 5: Free throws, an 18-point Phoenix edge.
• 9 of 33 vs. 3 of 22: Threes, an 18-point Seattle edge. The arc and the stripe canceled out exactly.
• 44-34: Phoenix on the boards, including a 10-4 edge on the offensive glass.
• 17-11: Phoenix in fast-break points.
• 14 and 14: Turnovers for each team, and each turned the other's into exactly 14 points.

With the long-range and free-throw math a wash and the giveaways dead even, this one came down to extra possessions and a player who refused to miss. Phoenix grabbed 10 more rebounds and scored six more in transition, and that was enough on a night when four points decided it.

Two 3-8 Teams, One Less Streak

Phoenix and Seattle both sit at 3-8 after this one, their first meeting of the season. The Mercury are 2-4 on the road and head to Portland on Friday. This was their first win since beating Chicago, and it came two nights after a 111-77 loss to Minnesota, so the bar for improvement wasn't exactly high.

Seattle has lost four straight and is 2-4 at home. The three losses before this one came by 14, 21 and 23, so a four-point game counts as progress, in the saddest possible way. The Storm travel to Minnesota on Saturday to face a Lynx team that has won five straight, which is nobody's idea of a get-well game.

Nobody's Putting This on Netflix

Nobody is cutting this game into a docuseries episode. It had 55 three-point attempts that mostly clanged, a star who went 4 of 14, and a reserve who went 0 for 7 from deep and still closed the door. But 19 days is a long time between wins, and nobody in Phoenix is going to ask for style points. If Mack plans on staying perfect, the Mercury will happily keep the rest of the aesthetics exactly this bad.

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