The Phoenix Mercury and the Las Vegas Aces staged a massive battle for playoff positioning on Thursday night in Sin City, and the red-hot Aces continued to roll in an 83-61 victory.

Las Vegas jumped out to a lead in the first half, taking a 14-point lead into halftime against the Mercury. In the second half, with Phoenix trying to battle back into the game, things got a little more complicated. Star guard Kahleah Copper left the game in the third quarter after taking a hard hit on a screen from Aces star A'ja Wilson.

Copper hobbled off to the locker room, and the Mercury officially declared her questionable to return with a rib injury. The star guard never returned to the game as the Aces continued to run away with the victory for their ninth win in a row.

The Mercury don't have much time to rest, as they will head back home to take on the Golden State Valkyries on Friday night in the second game of a back-to-back set. Phoenix now needs to make up some ground on the Aces and others around them in the standings, so a win in that one is paramount and Copper's status will be the biggest storyline coming into it.

Copper played 20 minutes before leaving the game on Thursday night, scoring six points on 2-for-8 shooting with both of her makes coming from beyond the arc. While Alyssa Thomas is the star of the show in the desert, Copper is the leader of the backcourt and the team needs her 16 points per game in order to truly reach its ceiling this year.

Following this result, the standings between second place and fifth are even more jumbled with just a few weeks to go until the playoffs get underway. The Aces, who had a miserable start to the season, are up to No. 3 after their 11th win in 12 games. The New York Liberty drop to fourth place after their shocking loss to the Chicago Sky on Thursday night.

Phoenix currently sits in the dreaded No. 5 spot after this loss, meaning that they would not have home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Now, with Copper's injury hanging over them, the Mercury have a lot to think about with just a handful of games to go in the regular season.

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