Mercury Eliminate Lynx; Now on to WNBA Finals

By Francisco Romero.-

If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best and that is exactly what the Phoenix Mercury did Tuesday night by beating the Minnesota Lynx 96-78 at US Airways Center to win the WNBA Western Conference Finals.

Diana Taurasi: Picture Courtesy of wnba.com

Phoenix advances to the WNBA Finals for the first time since 2009. 

With the loss, Minnesota, last years WNBA’s Champion was eliminated.

Diana Taurasi led the Mercury with 31 points; she scored the first 8 points of the fourth quarter to give her team an 80-67 lead.

“The way we played as a unit on both ends shows what kind of people we have on this team, what kind of coaching staff and that was huge for us” Taurasi said during a postgame press conference, and added, “Tonight was big for all of us.”

For Phoenix Brittney Griner had 22 points and six rebounds, DeWanna Bonner and Candice Dupree added 14 points each.

“Brittney was big for us tonight, “ said Mercury’s coach Sandy Brondello. 

For Minnesota, guard Selmone Augustus was the leading scorer with 21 points; Lindsay Whalen finished the game with 20 points and 8 rebounds.

“I thought that Phoenix played great,” said Minnesota’s head coach Cheryl Reeve – Head Coach,  “we just didn’t get done some things we were trying to do.” “Overall Phoenix was the better team in the series,” she added.

Phoenix will now face the winner of the Chicago-Indiana series. 

The Finals will be a five game series with the first two games being played at US Airways Center on Sunday, Septmber 7^th and Tuesday, September 9^th.

The series will be back in Phoenix if there is a need for a game 5. 

The Mercury finished the regular season at 29-5.  Minnesota has gone to WNBA Finals the last three seasons, winning two of them.