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The Phoenix Mercury capped off their road trip with a fourth win in four games. In Kahleah Copper's third game back, she wasn't the lone star. It was everyone.
In the 107-86 win over the Chicago Sky, Copper herself had 16 points, three rebounds, and three assists. Meanwhile, her Mercury teammates had five more players post in double figures for points.
Late in the fourth quarter, center Kalani Brown hit the team's 17th 3-pointer to give the Mercury a new franchise record. As the bench shouted with jubilation, Copper praised her teammates for making history in Chi-town.
“Just a shoutout to my teammates for hitting shots, hitting open shots, hitting contested shots, our post players stepping up. Lani (Brown) got a big one,” Copper said.
“Just a credit to the work that we put in every single day, and then just trusting the process and division, and what the Phoenix Mercury wants to be. And then for this team, a four-game winning streak (to cap off) this kind of hellacious road trip.”
Saturday's primetime game was one of the few chances this season that the Big 3 have all been on the floor together: Satou Sabally and Alyssa Thomas joined Copper on the floor.
The chemistry, off-ball movement, and picking of their spots were exceptional. They also picked apart Chicago's defense and took advantage of defensive lapses, leading to open triples.
The ongoing barrage of treys led to a historic afternoon, and one that put the WNBA world on notice.
Kahleah Copper's teammates thought highly of Mercury record
A 3-point specialist in Sami Whitcomb was a major factor in the historic game. She hit five triples of her own and registered 17 points. Although she had been shooting the ball a bit poorly to start the year, since the road trip, Whitcomb has risen to the occassion.
The Mercury Big 3 have provided much more space on the floor. Still, the Australian guard is launching shots from well beyond the arc. As a result, her point production has been huge off the bench.
Much like Copper, Whitcomb gave praise to the organziation and her teammates for an impressive performance.
“We have a lot of fantastic shooters. I think some as specialists, but I think even players that you may not think of as 3-point shooters. Kalani (Brown), she's a super capable 3-point shooter.
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“Everywhere we have that in our spacing, and the players that we have … AT, Satou, and Kah, who can get downhill and are such willing passers, just make it really easy for all of us.”
Mercury endured a grueling road trip
Within these four games, the team played a back-to-back set in Connecticut and New York. When playing on Wednesday, it was Thomas's emotional return to Connecticut.
Nearly 24 hours after, they played the best team in the Eastern Conference. However, a Kahleah Copper-less Phoenix team took down the New York Liberty, 89-81.
It shocked many, but not the Mercury. Finally, on Saturday, they landed the coup de grâce on an undefeated road trip. A dominant primetime win had head coach Nate Tibbetts excited, but not pleased.
Even with the influx of games, Tibbetts joked about using his NBA experience in the former D-League (now G League) as a way to work through multiple games in consecutive nights. Still, he credited one thing, as he has all season for what helped the team endure the tough stretch.
"Our team has bought into that, they like being aggressive [defensively]."
The full court reps, seeing them do so in multiple ways, stood out today
I asked Nate Tibbetts about their attack-first mentality in approach & scheme, postgame pic.twitter.com/8HIsN5P0qr
— Stephen PridGeon-Garner 🏁 (@StephenPG3) June 21, 2025
“When you played games back-to-back-to-back and two games and three nights, and just trying to set the tone with your defense,” Tibbetts said. “I knew that we were going to be tired and a little bit fatigued, but we wanted to try to wake up our bodies … but just to try to get us going.
“That was something that was used years ago, that I've always kind of liked and stole from some really good coaches that I got to see at a young age. And our team has bought into that.
“They like being aggressive.”
