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LAS VEGAS– Sin City turned into literal hell for the Phoenix Mercury against the Las Vegas. The 83-61 loss was one of their worst of the season, for a myriad of reasons, as head coach Nate Tibbetts mentioned.
Although the Mercury had an unsung hero on Tuesday, there was none of that on Thursday. After securing a 3-0 lead, that was the only Phoenix had.
The rest of the way, Las Vegas did whatever it wanted. Even though A'ja Wilson was held to under 20 points, her supporting squad pulled their weight.
Following Thursday's loss, Tibbetts went NSFW regarding Phoenix's performance.
Nate Tibbetts didn’t mince words about the Mercury’s performance tonight.
“To be quite honest, they kicked our ass from the start.” pic.twitter.com/Q96KIKdfHh
— Hayden Cilley (@HaydenCilley) August 22, 2025
“I didn't think that we were very good tonight, to be quite honest. They kicked our ass from the start,” Tibbetts said. “These are games that we got to go through as a group.
“We got to figure out how to win as a group and how we lose as a group and stay together. They're playing extremely well, and they completely outplayed us tonight.”
Tibbetts hit the nail on the head. The Aces looked like a team competing for a championship. Their experience certainly paid dividends. However, it doesn't excuse losing the fundamentals principles the Mercury have had all season.
Moving the ball, making the right play, and not being afraid to reorganize the offense.
Someone else thought the same of Nate Tibbetts assessment of Mercury
Alyssa Thomas has been more than vocal this season. The ups and downs, and even in the mundane, she hasn't been afraid to critique her team, and herself.
Despite posting yet another double-double, Thomas had five personal fouls and three turnovers. While it wasn't all on her, the Aces did a great job of disrupting her flow.
Matching her on Wilson was great on the defensive side, but limited the Mercury offensively. The latter was able to stay with her on the perimeter, but strong enough to contain her inside.
Either way, there was one glaring discrepancy that was not in Phoenix's favor.
Turnovers.
They had 13 turnovers to Vegas's four, but the Aces capitalized, and scored 21 points off Phoenix turnovers. That was something Thomas was not pleased about, and knew it would come back to bite.
Phoenix allowed 21 points to be scored off turnovers.
I asked Alyssa Thomas how they can limit that number moving forward.
“It’s about taking care of the ball. Making the right plays. Some of it is just hustle and getting back into the right plays.” pic.twitter.com/Udi5ZDrQoN
— Hayden Cilley (@HaydenCilley) August 22, 2025
“It's something we talked about. If we turn the ball over, they're gonna turn it into offense,” Thomas said postgame. “For us, it's about taking care of the ball, making the right plays.
“Some of it is just hustle, getting back into the places. But yeah, I mean, they were the better team tonight, which reflected on the scoreboard, and you know, we can't do anything about it.”
Nate Tibbetts knows this was a bad performance for Mercury
Losing to the two-time WNBA champions isn't necessarily a bad thing. Unlike the previous two performances, Thursday was easily the worst of those three.
Much of it came back to a lack of connection. The Aces pressure, and constant switching got Phoenix out of sync. That point was highlighted in Tibbetts's assessment of what went wrong on the offensive side.
“I thought we were a step slow on a lot of stuff tonight. Offensively, we're disjointed,” Tibbetts said. “We were holding it, we weren't moving, and then our transition, even in the first quarter was slow. Not our best effort.
“We gotta be better, obviously, moving forward because, because that's not gonna get it done what we just brought tonight.”
There will be minimal rest for Phoenix, as they'll hop on a plane and take on the Golden State Valkyries for the second time in three days back at home.
This might be a good time for them to remove any blemishes from Thursday's loss and move on, rather swiftly.
