• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Silver Stars-Mercury Preview

Sep 20, 2009 - 8:53 PM By PAUL DIGIACOMO STATS Senior Editor

San Antonio (15-19) at Phoenix (23-11), 10:00 p.m. EDT

With their season on the line, the top-seeded Phoenix Mercury felt a sense of urgency as they tried to force a deciding Game 3 against the San Antonio Silver Stars.

After accomplishing that goal, Phoenix doesn't plan on becoming less aggressive.

Coming off a dominant performance, the Mercury try to advance to the Western Conference finals when they host the Silver Stars on Monday night.

Phoenix went 23-11 in the regular season while San Antonio finished 15-19, but the Silver Stars opened this best-of-three, first-round series with a 92-91 win at home Thursday.

The Mercury, though, came out strong in Game 2 at home Saturday night, outscoring San Antonio 14-2 in the final 3:41 of the first quarter after the game was tied 21-all. Phoenix led 64-42 at halftime and won 106-78 to avoid elimination.

"We were aggressive," said forward Penny Taylor, who scored 14 off the bench. "I think that's the key word. We were aggressive offensively and defensively at all times."

Diana Taurasi had 24 points, six rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots for the Mercury, whose 35 points broke the WNBA record for most in the first quarter of a playoff game.

"I thought we came out offensively getting some things done," Silver Stars coach Dan Hughes said. "But defensively, just had no answer to getting the game under control from a tempo standpoint. I thought Taurasi was the lead character in that, establishing that kind of story line for the game."

Taurasi went 10 of 15 from the field and 4 of 7 from 3-point range, but she was more pleased with Phoenix's ability to shut down Sophia Young. The fourth-year forward had 19 points but went 6 for 18 from the field after scoring 24 and shooting 10 for 19 in Game 1.

"Tonight we did a better job of making it difficult," Taurasi said. "We made it difficult for Sophia. You look at the stat sheet and she has 19, but we made her work a little bit more. That's what it's about - making adjustments and trying to execute them on the court."

Coach Corey Gaines was happy to see the Mercury get back to their high-scoring, fast-breaking ways.

"When you make shots, things seem easier," he said. "It's amazing how it gets easier - defense gets better, everything gets easier."

Phoenix shot 63.9 percent from the field and 56.2 from beyond the arc (9 of 16).

"It didn't help us that they couldn't miss anything," Young said. "But I thought they attacked us in every aspect, and we were kind of on our back heels a lot during the whole game. If you are going to win, you can't let that happen."

If the Silver Stars are going to advance to the conference finals for the third straight year, they'll likely need Becky Hammon to step up her play. Hammon, the second-leading scorer in the WNBA this season behind Taurasi at 19.5 a game, was held to 13 in 29 minutes Saturday.

San Antonio has lost all three visits to Phoenix this season after winning both meetings there in 2008, en route to an appearance in the WNBA finals.