Mercury superstar Diana Taurusi top-scored for her side with 20 points while forward DeWanna Bonner dominated the final term, scoring 11 of her 18 points, while centre Brittany Griner added 18 points, nine rebound and three blocks. The Fever finished 17-18, while the Mercury are now 17-18.
Advertisement
IN got two quick points from Erica Wheeler in the first quarter, but Phoenix went on an 11-3 run. Indiana’s Marissa Coleman answered for IN, and the first quarter ended IN an 18-18 tie. The Dream’s second leading rebounder, Sancho Lyttle, did not play due to a foot injury.
Taylor, a three-time Olympian, played her final game for the Opals at the Rio Games, where they were bundled out by Serbia in the quarter-finals.
But a late fightback from the Fever saw them cut the Mercury’s lead to 77-74 before a final run saw Phoenix home with Taylor offering a steady presence in the closing minutes.
Briann January made a reverse layup with 2:39 remaining to pull IN to 77-72 and she drew an offensive foul on Taurasi on the other end.
Phoenix Mercury forward Penny Taylor.
With three minutes left in the third quarter, Phoenix went on a 9-2 run to pull ahead of in, 57-54. After two very close matches, Seattle and IN were both eliminated while Atlanta and Phoenix move onto the second round. There didn’t seem to be much of an audible orvisible reaction from the crowd at Bankers Life Fieldhouse to the WNBA players’ actions.
“I support our players expressing their views on important social issues”, Borders said in a statement. But Indiana seemed to be slow dancing in a burning room, as John Mayer would say.
Every member of the Indiana Fever took a knee during the national anthem ahead of a first-round WNBA playoff game on Wednesday.
The Fever players knelt on the court during the national anthem, which has been done by athletes across the country to bring awareness to the escalating numbers of black men shot by police, including two this week in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Charlotte, North Carolina.
Advertisement
WNBA President Lisa Borders, who was in Atlanta for the playoff game between the Dream and Seattle backed the players choice to kneel.
