• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Silver Stars-Mercury Preview

Aug 12, 2009 - 6:50 PM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

San Antonio (10-12) at Phoenix (16-7), 10:00 p.m. EDT

The two leading scorers in the WNBA square off for the third time this year when Diana Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury host Becky Hammon and the San Antonio Silver Stars on Thursday night.

A high-scoring affair could be on tap with Hammon averaging a league-high 20.7 points and Taurasi 20.4. The teams split their first two meetings, with Phoenix winning 90-79 at home in the teams' season opener June 6 and San Antonio responding 15 days later with a 91-87 home victory.

Taurasi averaged 23.5 points against the Silver Stars (10-12) while Hammon scored 19.5 points per game in the two contests. The teams meet again Saturday at the AT&T Center.

Phoenix (16-7) also features the league's fourth-leading scorer in Cappie Pondexter, who averages 19.0 points. She totaled 49 points in the matchups with San Antonio.

"We just gotta go out there and be ready to guard people because they have two very great perimeter players that we need to buckle down and guard," San Antonio forward Sophia Young said.

The Silver Stars are coming off a disheartening 90-73 home loss to league-worst Sacramento on Tuesday. Hammon scored 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting after averaging 25.0 over her previous six games.

Coach Dan Hughes, though, blamed his defense for the loss. The Silver Stars allowed an average of 89.7 points in losing two of three.

"The reality of it is that if you're not real consistent defensively, you tend to have a little inconsistency in your product," Hughes said. "We've been inconsistent defensively."

The Silver Stars are in fourth place, one game ahead of Los Angeles for the final Western Conference playoff spot, and are anxious to put the loss to Sacramento behind them.

"Phoenix is a different type of team, they run a lot," Young said. "It's not as physical as Sacramento was. We just gotta be ready to get on our horses for Phoenix on Thursday."

Young is seventh in the league with 17.2 points per game.

The West-leading Mercury have dropped consecutive games at home, losing 90-83 to Indiana on Saturday. Phoenix fell behind 17-2 in the first 3:31 and never recovered.

"We still have a large margin of improvement to make," Taurasi said. "We are still pretty far from where we need to be if we want to win a championship."

Taurasi scored 16 points and Pondexter added 12.