Dallas Wings (4-7) at Phoenix Mercury (4-7)
Date: Saturday, June 18th
Time: 9:00 PM (CDT)
Site: Talking Stick Resort Arena
Television: Fox Sports Southwest, NBATV
Probable Starters
Wings: Karima Christmas, Glory Johnson, Courtney Paris, Odyssey Sims, Skylar Diggi
Mercury: Diana Taurasi, Penny Taylor, Brittney Griner, Sonja Petrovic, Candice Dupree
Storylines
The Wings take on the Phoenix Mercury for the first time this season. The two teams will face off four times this year. Following Saturday’s game in Phoenix, both teams will travel back to Dallas for a rematch on Tuesday at College Park Center.
The Wings snapped a six-game losing streak with a win over the Seattle Storm on Thursday. Six Wings players shot higher than 50 percent from the field as Dallas had its highest shooting percentage of the season (.524).
Dallas center Courtney Paris registered her second straight double-double, and fourth of the season, vs. Seattle with 13 points and 10 rebounds. The seventh-year center currently ranks second in the league with 9.6 rebounds per game.
Wings guard Skylar Diggins has returned to game action following last year’s knee injury. Diggins is averaging 21 minutes over the last three games, and made her first start of the season at New York on June 14th.
Mercury head coach Sandy Brondello played for the Wings organization in 1998 and 1999 when the team was based in Detroit. Brandello was named a 1999 WNBA All-Star and led the team in scoring both years.
What the Wings are saying about Saturday’s game…
Head Coach Fred Williams- “Phoenix is a running team. Their perimeter game is pretty strong. Taurasi is playing more at the point position, and we have to contain her, because usually the point guard is handling the ball about 90 percent of the game. Our mindset with them is to match their tempo and come out and play some aggressive defense.”
Assistant coach Ed Baldwin- “Phoenix is a transitional basketball team. They’ve started off slow but I think they are just trying to get acclimated to each other again, with Taurasi and Taylor coming back. They are beginning to play much better and they always play well at home. They might have the best fans in the league. We’ll just have to come out and contain their transition game. That’s the big thing.”
Center Courtney Paris- “They are a tough team. They have some of the best players in the league on their team. They are picking it up and getting it going. It’s going to be a tough matchup for us, but we are getting things going for ourselves too.”
Guard Erin Phillips- “They are very talented obviously. I think that they haven’t played their best basketball yet, but we know what to expect. They have been together for a long time. They are coming off of a back-to-back, but we expect them to be very physical. Their fans are going to be loud, so we just have to keep our momentum from Thursday night going.”
Guard Brianna Kiesel- “We know they have a veteran team. We’ll try to focus on Diana Taurasi and play solid defense on the help side. We just need to play our game.”