The story is a beautiful one, and while Alyssa Thomas and the Mercury were clearly a team to be reckoned with, few would have predicted they would be the first to reach the 2025 WNBA Finals. And the road they took to get there has been remarkable. In the quarterfinals, they eliminated the defending champions, the New York Liberty of Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu. But that was not enough for Alyssa Thomas. Now it was the turn of the Minnesota Lynx, owners of the league’s best regular-season record at 34 wins and just 10 losses, to leave empty-handed.
While the series appeared tightly contested at one game apiece, Game 3 of these semifinals proved decisive. Phoenix won by eight points, but that margin hardly reflected the flow of the game. The Lynx controlled the contest for three quarters. The problem is that a basketball game has four. Helped by Satou Sabally, Alyssa Thomas sparked a comeback before completely taking over the game herself.
Napheesa Out
With only seconds remaining and Phoenix holding a narrow lead, Minnesota turned to its star Napheesa Collier in an attempt to close the gap. On an inbound play, Collier tried to create some separation, but Alyssa Thomas had other ideas. Hungry. Determined. AT anticipated the action, dove for the ball, and poked it away. The steal was clean. However, there was accidental contact during the sequence. Alone on the fast break, Thomas scored the two points that killed the game—and, in many ways, the series as well.
Napheesa Collier remained on the floor. The replay was not pretty. Head coach Cheryl Reeve was furious. She lashed out at the officiating, earned an ejection, and never regained her composure. Unfortunate as it was, Phoenix was flying high.
Game 4 became a win-or-go-home situation for Minnesota. But even if the Lynx mounted a comeback and won a hypothetical Game 5, the Finals would already be overshadowed by Napheesa Collier’s absence. Especially if A’ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces secured their spot against the Indiana Fever.
Without Napheesa Collier, Kayla McBride Was Relentless
Without their star—and also without Dijonai Carrington—Minnesota looked determined to fight. There was a sense of revenge in the air. They started strong. During the regular season, even when Collier was absent, the Lynx had remained dominant. Courtney Williams played aggressively, and it paid dividends. But the real difference-maker was Kayla McBride. The very player who had forced the Las Vegas Aces to question themselves during the season after a game in which she finished the first half 8-for-8 from three-point range, contributing to the worst defeat in franchise history for Las Vegas.
And it was that version of McBride who stepped onto the court tonight. Unstoppable. Every inch of space meant another three-pointer in your face. It did not matter who was defending her—Alyssa Thomas included. After two strong quarters, however, the cracks began to appear, and Phoenix clawed its way back from what seemed like a hopeless situation. Alyssa Thomas was relentless, trying to inject her competitive fire into her teammates. Despite leading by 13 points, the Lynx suddenly found themselves under siege. Phoenix suffocated Minnesota to erase the deficit and pull level entering the fourth quarter, thanks once again to Satou Sabally.
A Three-Point Storm in a Clash of Generations
“McBucket” was on fire. Despite the Mercury comeback, she never wavered and continued tormenting the Phoenix defense while her teammates seemingly forgot how to score. She remains one of the league’s elite shooters. Unfortunately for Minnesota, standing on the other side was DeWanna Bonner: 38 years old, owner of a WNBA-record 94 playoff appearances, and third all-time in playoff three-pointers before this game. Her shot may not have been as reliable this postseason as it once was, but there is always something dangerous about a veteran in a profession dominated by youth.
Bonner scored 11 of her 13 points in the fourth quarter, including a pair of back-to-back three-pointers. First, she tied Becky Hammon for second place on the all-time playoff three-point list. Then she passed her with her 116th career playoff triple, giving Phoenix the lead and helping the Mercury pull away.
Alyssa Thomas Writing History
Twenty-eight playoff double-doubles. Number one all-time in WNBA history after this latest performance against Minnesota. Twenty-three points, eight rebounds, ten assists, and, most memorably, the dagger basket in the closing seconds. With style. On an inbound play, Thomas executed a spectacular euro-step through the entire defense before finishing alone under the basket, putting Phoenix up by five with ten seconds remaining. Phoenix is heading to the Finals.
In doing so, the Mercury also became just the fourth team in WNBA history to eliminate both finalists from the previous season during a single playoff run.
Sommaire
