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NEW YORK CITY- First things first: the Phoenix Mercury are simply a better team than the New York Liberty.
In their meeting at the Garden on Tuesday, the Mercury proved it over the 40 minute duration. First a look at the numbers.
Efficiency stats
|
Phoenix |
NY Liberty |
Possessions |
74 |
77 |
Offensive Efficiency |
103 |
83 |
eFG |
58 |
38 |
FT Rate |
12 |
11 |
OREB Pct |
25 |
29 |
TO Rate |
23 |
12 |
The Phoenix offensive efficiency was a Liberty defensive deficiency. New York did force the visitors into a high turnover rate. The Mercury more than compensated shooting an eFG percentage of 58% - once again, failure to close out on the perimeter shooters was New York's undoing. The Mercury shot 9-for-18 (50%) from beyond the arc.
On their end, the Liberty struggled offensively. Their perimeter game resulted in misfiring to the tune of 1 of 7 (14%) fro three point range.
Individually, Tina Charles of the Liberty put up impressive numbers. But she received little help. Phoenix, on the other hand, was admirably balanced.
Individual stars
|
Points |
Efficiency |
T. Charles, NY |
26 |
31 |
C. Dupree, Phoe. |
18 |
25 |
B. Griner, Phoe. |
14 |
22 |
D. Taurasi, Phoe. |
14 |
6 |
Charles was solid adding a game high 12 rebounds plus three steals to her leading point production. Yet she could not match the Phoenix trio. Led by Candace Dupree with 18 points ,10 rebounds and 4 assists, Britney Griner shot 7-for-12 from the floor, pulled down 11 boards and blocked 3 shots. Diana Taurasi had a low efficiency but in this case the numbers lied. The Mercury star shot 3-for-6 from long range. She did add 4 assists, which were offset by an efficiency lowering 5 turnovers. Again, her presence was felt a lot more than the efficiency of 6 implies.
The Mercury improved to 27-4 clinching top spot in the West. In the process they even gained the admiration of Liberty faithful for their overall clinic-like expertise. The Liberty fell to 13-18 dropping their second straight.