Brittney Griner continues hot streak, Mercury beat Sun

Diana Taurasi lobbed a pass into the paint for Brittney Griner midway through the third quarter against Connecticut on Wednesday night. She got fouled hard by two Sun defenders trying to joust in the air with the leaping 6-foot-9 forward.

Griner walked toward the top of the key, getting in position for Phoenix's ensuing inbound. She quickly turned to the referee on her right and smiled.

"I was shooting the alley-oop," she snickered, suggesting she should be shooting two free throws.

She didn't need the free throws. She finished her best all-around game this season with 19 points, eight rebounds and five blocks as the Mercury beat the Sun 86-75. It was Griner’s fourth consecutive game with at least 16 points, and it was the Mercury's third straight win.

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“She’s really playing her best basketball right now, and she’ll admit she struggled early in the season. Just trying to get healthy, too,” Mercury coach Sandy Brondello said. “She’s got no brace on and she’s moving well. And you know, basketball, sometimes it’s all about confidence. The ball goes into the hole a little bit more often, obviously you get more confident.”

This season began just about as poorly as it could for Phoenix, but especially for Griner, whose scoring, shooting and rebound numbers hovered well below her 2015 averages for the first 12 games.

She hit a low point from June 12-18 against Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas, shooting 10-of-28 and averaging just eight points in those contests.

June 18 feels like a long time ago now. In four games since then, she's averaging 18.5 points on 67-percent shooting, well above her career averages.

“She’s been on a bit of a roll in the last three games. I think she’s found herself, she’s feeling good,” Taurasi said. “And when she makes up her mind, there’s no one that can stop her. So we need her to make up her mind and we’re gonna ride her.”

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It's no coincidence Griner has avoided foul trouble as she’s found herself these last four games. She picked up her fourth with 2:59 left in the game Wednesday night and recorded four, three and three fouls, respectively, in the previous three games. Prior to this recent hot streak, Griner hadn't fouled three times or fewer since the season opener against Minnesota.

“It’s going good,” Griner said. “We hit a dry patch at the beginning of the season; it was really dry actually. But now it’s starting to clear up for us.”

The Mercury held Connecticut to 10 points in the first quarter, a season-best. They followed that with a dismal defensive second, allowing the Sun to score 27 points on 10-of-20 shooting, including 5-of-7 from long range. The Sun knocked down three unanswered 3s midway through the second to cut a 32-19 lead to 32-28.

Phoenix led 24-10 after one — its largest lead after the first quarter this season. It entered halftime leading 41-37.

Griner immediately stole all momentum back in the third. She shot and made Phoenix’s first three buckets of the quarter and jolted a 15-2 scoring run that pushed the Mercury ahead 56-39 with 4:53 left in the third, effectively putting the game away.

“We came into the locker room a little disappointed we let the lead go away,” Taurasi said. “We wanted to make a concerted effort to have a good third quarter. Sonja came out great, BG established herself early, DB shot the lights out today. Everyone put a little into it and we had a great third quarter.”

On a night when the Mercury home crowd celebrated Taurasi reaching 7,000 points, she netted just 11. Sonja Petrovic led the way with a career-high 22 points, and DeWanna Bonner added 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting.

Petrovic started in place of Penny Taylor, who sat out with a hip contusion.

Alex Bentley paced Connecticut with 20 points. She scored 12 of the Sun's first 17 points and made five of their first seven shots. She knocked down just one basket for three points in the second half.

This was Kelsey Bone's first game against the Sun since getting traded from Connecticut to Phoenix on June 25. She finished with three points in 10 minutes. Courtney Williams, who got dealt to the Sun as part of the Bone trade, received a nice hand as she checked in late in the second. She finished with two points in three minutes.