Las Vegas Aces provide opportunity for Mercury to get out of Olympic break slump

The Phoenix Mercury are stuck in the roughest stretch of the season and it came at the worst time.

The WNBA playoffs aren’t out of the picture for the Mercury with eight games left, but they haven’t found a rhythm over the last four games.

While the Mercury have been struggling to stack wins at home against the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx, the two top teams in the WNBA, the Indiana Fever have pressured the Mercury for the sixth playoff spot.

And now the Mercury (16-16) will have another matchup at Footprint Center against one of the league’s top teams — the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Wednesday’s loss against the Lynx put the Mercury’s frustrations on display as Sophie Cunningham was ejected in the fourth quarter after getting two technical fouls. The team has been the leader in technical fouls with 30, 15 ahead of the Aces.

“We’re in a rut right now, I think that’s no secret,” Cunningham said. “Everyone can see it. Teams go through it. I think you embrace it and you find light in that and ways to be better for one another. Collectively as a team, we’re going to come out on the right side of it. We just have to hang in there and stay together.”

Returning from the Olympic break hasn’t been easy for the Mercury as they’ve gone 3-4. Two of those three wins have come against the Chicago Sky and none against a team of .500 or above.

Losing streak continues: Phoenix Mercury blame recent slump on lack of practices since Olympic, All-Star break

The four road games haven’t done the Mercury any favors in securing quality practice time. The Mercury were in Chicago when the Olympic break ended and had a short time to practice before resuming play for the first time in a month.

The five-game homestretch has given the team a chance to plant roots, which has helped morale.

“We have the team, we have the people, we have the players,” guard Celeste Taylor said. “We just need to get it together and figure it out together. But we’ve been in the gym and had a great practice (on Friday), so that’s going to help us out a lot. We’re excited to get back out there together and keep progressing and be ready for playoff time.”

The Aces have been one of the most dominant teams in the WNBA over the last few years, but have fallen into struggles this season. Once a perennial league leader, the Aces are fifth in the league’s standings.

The Aces had an unusual loss to the Dallas Wings, the second-worst team, on Tuesday. The Wings won the rebounding battle, 40-26.

The Aces still can’t be taken lightly. Against the Wings, center A’ja Wilson recorded 42 points, the highest individual scoring performance in the WNBA this season.

Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts tinkered with the lineup for Wednesday’s loss, replacing Cunningham at wing for true power forward Monique Billings, and it benefited the Mercury. Billings helped the Mercury keep up with the Lynx on the boards as they finished only two rebounds behind Minnesota. Cunningham leaned into her role as the spark off the bench and led with 16 points.

“It’s another opportunity to be better,” Tibbetts said. “I think as a group, our staff, everybody, we weren’t happy. We want to play well and I don’t think that we’ve played very well and it’s another opportunity to be better.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Mercury can get out of slump at home in matchup vs. Las Vegas Aces