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Mercury-Silver Stars Preview

Aug 22, 2010 - 6:17 AM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

Phoenix (15-18) at San Antonio (13-20), 3:00 p.m. EDT

Having already secured the Western Conference's second seed, the Phoenix Mercury know they'll be hosting a first-round playoff game this week.

The San Antonio Silver Stars have a chance to be the opponent.

In a possible playoff preview, the Silver Stars try to clinch the West's third seed when they conclude the regular season Sunday against the Mercury.

While Phoenix (15-18) locked up second place with a 90-84 win at Los Angeles on Tuesday, San Antonio's playoff fate is still uncertain.

The Silver Stars (13-20) have clinched a postseason spot and will be seeded either third or fourth. A victory, or a loss coupled with a loss by Minnesota would secure third place. If San Antonio, Los Angeles and Minnesota all finish 13-21, the Silver Stars would be the fourth seed.

"It's getting close to the end," Sophia Young said after Friday's 75-61 win over the Fever. "It's either win, or go home. We're trying to secure the playoffs and get there. We're done talking, now we have to do something."

Young scored a game-high 22 points on 10 of 14 shooting, while Becky Hammon and Edwige Lawson-Wade combined for 19 fourth-quarter points. The Silver Stars outscored Indiana 28-14 in the final period to win for the first time in three games.

"We had a really good game, but we'll wait and see what happens," San Antonio coach Sandy Brondello said. "Our focus is on Sunday, if we can go in and win that game it solidifies us in the playoffs.

"By no means are we relaxing thinking we are in it, because we don't know what's going to happen yet. It's not over yet."

The Silver Stars won at Phoenix 108-105 on June 18, but were outscored by an average of 13.5 points while losing both ends of a home-and-home series with the Mercury earlier this month. The high-powered Mercury, the league leader in scoring at 94.2 points, averaged 103.0 on 60.0 percent shooting in the victories.

Phoenix might not be playing with the same sense of urgency on offense in this matchup, however.

With their playoff seeding set, the Mercury sat Diana Taurasi, the league's leading scorer with an average of 22.6 points, and Candice Dupree and Penny Taylor each played fewer than 10 minutes in Friday's 78-73 loss to Seattle.

It's uncertain how much coach Corey Gaines will play his starters Sunday.

"One thing we are doing is concentrating on us," guard Temeka Johnson said. "We're not really concerned with what other people are doing. We know we control our own destiny and that is our mindset."