Phoenix coach: Lynx look like repeat champions

Phoenix coach Corey Gaines is blunt and outspoken.

Last season he said his Mercury veteran team with Diana Taurasi, Penny Taylor and Candice Dupree could beat the Lynx in the playoffs. "We are a veteran team, we don't need home court" to win a playoff series, he said.

The Lynx, of course, swept the Mercury in two games. Winning the first game at Target Center, the second in Arizona.

Gaines has a much different view now.

"That's the type of team you can't [shut down]," Gaines said after the Lynx beat Phoenix 96-80 on Wednesday night in Target Center before the third 9,000-plus crowd in a row. "It's a great team, a champion. It looks like they're on their way to another one."

He meant an WNBA title.

The Mercury (3-9) will be fortunate to even make the playoffs. Taurasi (left hip flexor) has played in only two games. Taylor was not going to be with the Mercury until after the Olympics -- she was going to be training with Australia's national team -- but she won't play for Phoenix at all. She is recovering from a torn ACL injury.

So Phoenix had eight healthy players for Wednesday and started two former Lynx: Charde Houston at forward and Alexis Hornbuckle at guard.

Last season, Houston was 10th out of 11 Lynx players in minutes played at 7.8 per game, Hornbuckle was 11th, 7.2. On depleted Phoenix, they started against the Lynx.

After his team's latest loss Gaines, according to a Lynx news release, said this about his team, "They're playing hard. They're doing the best they can. I mean, they're playing hard. They've got young players, young point guard [Samantha Prahalis], other players but they're doing okay."

Prahalis had 20 points, DeWanna Bonner a game-high 23 for the Mercury.

"[Bonner] shoots threes well," Gaines said. "Usually she's open because she's playing and either big is guarding her and they're helping out on the drive or something. So she's doing what she's supposed to do."
Bonner, a skinny, 6-4 forward, was not happy with her team's effort. "They got a lot of offensive rebounds," she said. "I don't know what the 'O' boards were but I'm pretty sure they killed us on the 'O' boards."

As for offensive boards, the Lynx had 13, the Mercury eight.

"You know we weren't hungry for the ball," Bonner said. "We didn't go get the ball like we usually do, and that kind of hurt us as well. They got a lot of second-chance points."

"We've just got to put four quarters together. We haven't done that yet. Once we do that one time, I think we'll find a way to do that and continue to do that to get some wins."

Said Prahalis, "We had a slow third quarter. We could've attacked them a bit more. Yeah, I think a lapse or two, and they're a good team. so they hurt us on that."

The story on the Lynx-Mercury game in Thurrsday's Star Tribune is here.

The Lynx, at 13-1, have a .928 winning percentage. Their next opponent is San Antonio on Sunday in Texas. The Silver Stars (5-5) are 3-1 in their last five games after a slow start. They play Los Angeles (10-5) at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at home.

* The Lynx are now averaging 9,070 fans per game.

NO PRACTICE THURSDAY

Lynx have an off day today, as Seimone Augustus tweets:

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Four of the 12 teams in the FIBA Olympic qualifying tournament are out after pool play. Going home from Ankara, Turkey, are Mali, Mozambique, New Zealand and Puerto Rico.

Friday's quarterfinal pairings are:

Turkey vs. Argentina

Croatia vs. Canada

Czech Republic vs. Japan

The four winners get sports in the London Summer Games, starting in late July. The four losers Friday play off for the final spot in the 12-team field.

Scores from the third day:

Japan 79, Puerto Rico 70

Czech Republic 68, Argentina 54

Croatia 83, Korea 75