Phoenix Mercury: Can They Come Back From 0-2 Deficit?

PHOENIX – The Phoenix Mercury are facing a 0-2 deficit in the 2025 WNBA Finals after dropping the first two games to the Las Vegas Aces, who are looking to win their third title in the last four season.

Throughout Game 2, the Mercury couldn’t slow down the Aces’ fast-paced and dominant offense, led by A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young, and struggled to find answers for what went wrong in the loss.

“There’s no panic, no pressure,” Alyssa Thomas said Tuesday. “That’s the beauty of a seven-game series. If we’re sitting at five games, it’s basically elimination. If you’re familiar [with] watching NBA games, [comebacks] happen a lot when teams go down like this. For us, it’s coming home with our home crowd, being comfortable, being in [our own] beds, which are a big deal. First and foremost, we gotta play better defense.”

The Phoenix Mercury will welcome the Las Vegas Aces at home for Games 3 of the 2025 WNBA Finals on Wednesday night.

After losing the first two games to the Aces on the road, the Mercury have confidence in winning its next two games on their home court.

During the playoffs, Phoenix came back from a 20-point deficit to defeat Minnesota in Game 2 of the semifinals, in which the Mercury ended up eliminating the Lynx in four games in a best-of-five series. 

“Being able to fight back, and knowing that that’s a part of our identity, but I think we really got to lock in defensively because that’s what we’re hanging our hats on,” Phoenix Mercury guard Kahleah Copper said Sunday. “I think in this game in general, it was about having some fight, and we kind of lost that. But on to the next. [It’s a] seven-game series.”

More Consistency Needed from Satou Sabally

Mercury Forward Satou Sabally made her WNBA Finals debut and she had a mixed bag of results in the first two games. She played well in Game 1 despite getting in some foul trouble and picking up a technical foul in the fourth quarter that shifted Phoenix’s momentum.

Sabally had some questionable shot attempts and the Aces’ defense forced her into tough situations in Game 2. She still finished the game with 22 points on 7-for-19 from the field (2-for-9 from the 3-point line) and grabbed nine rebounds.

As a group, Sabally believes the Mercury will need to lock back in on the defensive end, and she knows she is a big part of that as well.

“It’s all about defense,” Sabally said. “We all have to do a collective group effort just to be better on defense and transitioning to defending their transition points. So that’s really what we’re focused on. And also feeling out the rhythm of the other players and being more exposed to that.”

When Sabally is feeling it on both ends of the courts, Phoenix can be a tough team to beat, but against Las Vegas that hasn’t transpired yet. The Mercury are hoping being on their home court changes the series’ momentum.

Alyssa Thomas Needs to Dominate

In Game 2 of the WNBA Finals, Thomas got into some foul trouble, which spelled doom for the Mercury. Her passing in Phoenix’s offense was also disrupted by Las Vegas’ guards, who actively stole the ball and excelled at transition defense.

The Mercury’s defense also allowed the Aces’ star trio of Wilson, Young and Chelsea Gray to have a historic performance. The Mercury simply cannot allow that again. 

“For us, it starts with our defense,” Thomas said. “In the first two games, our defense has been very below average for us, for them to score 89 and 91 points. It’s been a while since a team has scored that many points on us, let alone back to back. So for us, we know we have to lock in on the defensive end.”

Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts echoed Thomas’ statement.

“We need to be better defensively,” Tibbetts said. “We haven’t done a good enough job getting stops. And then offensively, we just haven’t had an understanding of what we’re looking for as a group.”

The Mercury spent Tuesday reviewing film, and it made Phoenix feel confident it can correct its woes and stay alive in the Best-of-seven Finals series.

Phoenix’s identity is defending physically and capitalizing on opposing turnovers, something it had success with the whole season.

“We all have to take a little self accountability when it comes to that, and guard our matchups better, be more aggressive, be able to force turnovers, which I don’t feel like we’ve done,” Thomas said. “So it’s just getting back to being connected on defense and doing it together.”

Asked how the Mercury can get back to their defensive ways, Copper said, “Just continuing to keep that edge.

“I think we kind of lost the edge a little bit, but just continuing to lean into that and continuing just to challenge ourselves and just compete.”

I asked Kahleah Copper earlier today about how the Phoenix Mercury will need to get back to their defensive identity. #WNBAFinals

She said, “Trust the adjustments, and believe it. We have to do what we say we’re going to do, and then we’ll build off of that. But we have to…

— Aya Abdeen (@ayabdeen) October 8, 2025

The Mercury Need More from their Bench

The Aces outscored the Mercury bench, 41-16, in Game 1 and 16-8 in Game 2. Furthermore, Phoenix’s bench points per game in the postseason dropped significantly from 20 to 12.

Forward DeWanna Bonner and guard Sami Whitcomb are key to the Mercury’s bench scoring success.

“Just being more aggressive,” Bonner said.  “Just understanding where I can get my shots, and understanding how to impact my game and not just getting shots. Whether that’s defensively, whether that’s rebounding, whether that’s pushing the brakes, whatever I can do to impact the game.”

Thomas has confidence the bench can get back to its productive ways for Phoenix, who had the best bench in the league throughout the regular season.

“I mean, Sami (Whitcomb) and DB (DeWanna Bonner) have been great for us all year, so definitely figure out ways to get them going,” Thomas said. “Right now, our offense, we haven’t been doing as well as we have one game, one verse Game Two was a lot different. So, we just got to create for each other and try to get more open shots.”

Notable WNBA 0-2 Deficit Comebacks 

When it comes to teams in the WNBA coming back from being down 0-2 in a series to tie it, it is a rare occurrence in the league’s 29-year history. Only the 2018 Phoenix Mercury have come back in a best-of-five series to tie it at 2-2. That came vs. the Seattle Storm and Seattle went on to win Game 5 to advance to the WNBA Finals. 

Bonner was a part of that semifinals series in which she had vivid memories, so she’s confident the Mercury still have a fighting chance in this year’s series. In fact, she said she might encourage her teammates to watch that series for confidence.

“It’s been done before, and that was an even more stressful situation, because when you’re down zero and two and the best of five is they just need one more game, we are guaranteed two home games here,” Bonner said.

As the best-of-seven WNBA Finals series shifts to Phoenix, where Wilson stated it is a hard place to play, Sabally has confidence in their fans to make a difference in the next two games.

“It’s really being in your own rhythm,” Sabally said. “You’re not in a different city for five days in a row. You’re sleeping in your own bed, having your own food and the food you’re used to. Those are things on the macro level, but really just being on [our] homecourt and feeling your fans behind you. It’s just a lot more fun too, to play at home and that’s what we’ll lean on. We’ll lean on the fans, but we’ll also lean on us, the whole squad and the environment.”

Copper said on national television, “Don’t pick us” as an underdog mentality, and she was a part of the Chicago Sky’s title run in 2021, where she was named the Finals MVP.

Thomas is looking to win her first WNBA Championship.

“We love an underdog story,” Thomas said. “We love [it] when people count us out. Of course, we put a tall task in front of us being down two [to] nothing, but there’s still a lot of basketball left to play. [It’s just been] two of a seven-game series. Still a lot of confidence here. We just know we have a lot of room to improve.”