The Phoenix Mercury are fighting for their chance to reach the WNBA Playoffs with just two games left on the docket, but they were hit with a devastating injury blow on Thursday. After losing Diana Taurasi to a season-ending injury, the Mercury will now also have to push on without Skylar Diggins-Smith. According to Alexa Philippou, Diggins-Smith will miss the remainder of the season due to personal reasons.

Diggins-Smith was unavailable in each of the Mercury's previous two games. She missed Saturday's clash against the New York Liberty with a non-COVID-related illness, and was unavailable on Wednesday against the Minnesota Lynx due to personal reasons.

While those reasons have not been made public, it's likely that the same issue which kept her off the floor on Wednesday is what will sideline her for the rest of the year.

The loss of Taurasi and Diggins-Smith will be near impossible for the Mercury to overcome. The duo represents the team's top two scorers on the season (excluding Tina Charles who joined the Seattle Storm midway through the season. Diggins-Smith leads the charge with 19.7 points per game, while Taurasi is close behind at 16.7 points per game, and was one of the league's top sharpshooters, converting on 3.0 3-pointers per game at a 33.7% clip.

It's not just offensively where Diggins-Smith will be missed. The guard averages 5.5 assists, 4.0 rebounds, 1.6 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game, making an impact in every facet of the game.

With Taurasi and Diggins-Smith out for the year, the Mercury will have to lean on the likes of Sophie Cunningham, Diamond DeShields, and Shey Peddy to handle the offensive workload.

At 14-20, Phoenix will need to stay above the Minnesota Lynx (14-20) and LA Sparks (13-21) in the Western Conference in order to reach the playoffs. They have two games left on the docket, including matchups with the Dallas Wings (17-17) and Chicago Sky (25-9).