Mercury vs. Sun: DeWanna Bonner's Season-High 21 Ends Phoenix's Five-Game Skid

DeWanna Bonner went up for Alyssa Thomas' lob with 1:56 left on Sunday, finished the alley-oop through contact and made the free throw, and a team that had not won a game since July 2 could finally exhale.

Bonner's 21 points were her most this season, Kahleah Copper chipped in 18, and the Phoenix Mercury took down the Connecticut Sun 72-63 at Mortgage Matchup Center to end a five-game losing streak. Two days after the Sun cooked them in this same building, Mercury is officially out of retrograde.

A Fast Start, a Scary Dip, a Clean Finish

Connecticut actually led 12-10 with 2:07 left in the first quarter. Phoenix answered by scoring the next eight, and that 18-12 edge after one set the tone for the prettiest half the Mercury have played in a while: 50% shooting, 12 assists on their 17 made baskets, and a 43-33 lead at the break.

Then the third quarter showed up and reminded everyone why this team came in with 18 losses. Phoenix managed 11 points in the frame and would make only nine shots in the entire second half. Connecticut trimmed the margin to 54-49, and early in the fourth the Sun kept coming. Charlisse Leger-Walker got to the rim and finished a three-point play with 4:42 left, and suddenly a 63-62 game had every Phoenix fan doing the math on a sixth straight loss.

Here is the thing, though. That was Connecticut's last made field goal of the afternoon.

Copper answered with a layup off a Thomas feed 12 seconds later, then made two free throws at 3:55. Bonner hit one at the line for 68-62. After Olivia Nelson-Ododa split a pair, Thomas threw that lob, and the three-point play made it 71-63. Good night. Phoenix closed on a 9-1 run, and the Sun spent the final 4:42 looking for a bucket that never came.

Bonner Looked Tired of Hearing About Friday

Bonner's line reads like a veteran with a grudge. She went 7 of 13 from the field and 6 of 8 at the line, grabbed six rebounds and did not commit a single turnover in 29 minutes, in a game that featured 35 of them. Two days earlier, she had eight points on 4-of-11 shooting in the 96-83 loss. This was a much better use of everybody's Sunday.

The supporting cast earned its share. Copper scored 12 of her 18 after halftime and went a perfect 8 of 8 at the line, which covers for a 5-of-14 shooting day and five turnovers. Thomas shot 2 of 9 and still ran the show, with 11 assists, including the two that killed Connecticut's last push. Monique Akoa Makani, scoreless on 0-for-6 shooting Friday, bounced back with 11 points, six rebounds and a team-best plus-17. Natasha Mack, back after missing eight games with a foot issue, played 20 useful minutes off the bench with four points and five boards. Noemie Brochant scored only four, but her three steals fit the theme of the afternoon.

For the Sun, Brittney Griner, who spent her first 11 WNBA seasons with Phoenix, led the way with 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting and two blocks. Nelson-Ododa had 12 points and 12 rebounds without a turnover, and she was the only Connecticut starter on the right side of the plus-minus. Nell Angloma gave them eight off the bench in 12 minutes. Next on the scoring list was Leila Lacan with seven, and that's where this gets painful.

The Great Turnover Swap

Friday, Lacan was the best player on the floor, dropping a career-high 26 on 10-of-13 shooting with one turnover in 28 minutes. Sunday, she played 37 minutes, shot 2 of 9, scored seven and coughed it up a career-high nine times. That's the whole game in one player's weekend.

Context helps. Aaliyah Edwards lasted five minutes before a first-quarter knee injury ended her day, while Saniya Rivers (ankle/foot) and Aneesah Morrow (reconditioning) sat out. Edwards and Rivers combined for 18 points on Friday, and on Sunday they gave Connecticut none. That left a thin group handling a lot of pressure, and Phoenix took full advantage with 11 steals.

Now look at how completely these two games flipped in 48 hours. On Friday, the Sun won points off turnovers 25-12 and fast-break points 19-6. On Sunday, the Mercury won them 22-9 and 12-3. Connecticut went from 11 total turnovers to a season-high 21, and from 96 points to 63. Same two teams, same building, opposite game.

That 13-point turnover margin came in a nine-point game. You can stop looking for other explanations.

Stats That Matter

• 21-14: The turnover count, and the reason Phoenix won a game in which it was outrebounded 35-32.
• 2 of 15: Phoenix from three. The Mercury won anyway by going 44-34 in the paint and 18 of 23 at the line.
• 19-13: Phoenix's edge in assists, a flip of Connecticut's 24-18 advantage on Friday.
• 38%: Connecticut's shooting, with Lacan, Leger-Walker and Diamond Miller combining to go 6 of 26.
• 9-1: The closing run after Leger-Walker's three-point play made it a one-point game.

What It Means

Phoenix moves to 9-18 and 4-9 at home, ending a three-game home skid along with the larger slide, a run that included a 106-58 loss at Las Vegas and a 104-100 loss at Minnesota. Connecticut drops to 7-19 and 3-9 on the road, and its two-game winning streak is over after a weekend split in the desert. The Mercury visit Los Angeles on Wednesday, and the Sun play at Indiana the same night.

This doesn't fix a season. A nine-win team is still a nine-win team, and shooting 2 of 15 from deep is not a sustainable business plan. But the Mercury had not won in 17 days, and for 40 minutes they looked like a group that remembered how.

The Takeaway

Astrology people will tell you that Mercury in retrograde wrecks communication, and for five games Phoenix played like a group chat nobody was reading. On Sunday the messages finally went through. Thomas found Copper, Thomas found Bonner, and a team that had spent more than two weeks waiting for a win got one by simply taking better care of the ball than the other side. It's not a turnaround yet. It is a very good reason to stop checking the star charts for a few days.

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