Join us tonight at game time for a game thread from the Shock sidelines!!
Who: The defending-champion Phoenix Mercury take on the bottom-of-the-bunch Tulsa Shock
What: This game will be the fourth and final meeting of the season between the two, with Phoenix holding a 323-268 scoring advantage and 3-0 record in their three meetings.
Where:BOK Center - Tulsa, OK
When:7:00 p.m. cst || Cox Television || Live Access
The Story:
The first two games of the season series were admittedly all but over near the first Mercury touch of the ball. But just five days ago the story was a bit different than the record-setting performances Tulsa allowed Phoenix to race to early in the season. The Mercury crowd didn't even get their free doughnuts for scoring 100 points in the game - a definite improvement on the previous 110 and 116 points allowed. [Read all about last weekend's 97-88 game and Phoenix head coach Corey Gaines' thoughts on SBN Arizona]
And after a successful for Tulsa road trip resulting in a win at San Antonio and an overtime loss in Los Angeles, the Shock are looking to notch a couple more wins in the West, with a tight division race everywhere but in the top spot. Even the 'lowly' Shock are just three and a half games out of fourth with 13 games remaining on their inaugural season schedule. Not to say that playoffs are graspable, but just to illustrate that tonight's opponent, who happens to be sitting in second, has just four more wins than the league's last place Tulsa team.
As coach Gaines pointed out, you can't sleep on the Shock. "You can't just play against them and expect you're going to win the game. They fight hard, they play hard, so you have to match their energy." So tonight, look for high-energy, intense basketball on both sides of the court in T-Town. As the mercury rises outside on this 100ish degree day in Oklahoma, we'll see if it can do the same on the court tonight for the Phoenix Mercury.