The Phoenix Mercury dropped 111-77 to the Minnesota Lynx to extend a six-game losing streak, and yet the team is resisting any talk of panic—while pointing to defensive urgency, a shooting slump, lineup disruption, and a remaining 44-game season.
PHOENIX — Nate Tibbetts watched it unfold like a slow leak: the stops weren’t coming, the defensive assignments weren’t sticking, and by the time the Mercury fell 111-77 to the Minnesota Lynx on Monday, the night felt beyond salvage.
Phoenix’s loss marked their sixth straight setback to start the WNBA season. a skid that has become the longest losing streak in Tibbetts’ era and one of the heaviest in franchise history. “There wasn’t a lot working the whole night. ” Tibbetts said after Phoenix dropped its fifth largest loss in franchise history. “It was a tough one… A lot of defensive issues in that game.”.
The Mercury are trying to move past the shock of the slide without pretending it doesn’t hurt. They insisted it’s too early to hit a panic button, even as their start has left fans searching for answers and urgency building with every defeat.
They get another chance Wednesday at Seattle, with tipoff set for 10 p.m. ET, and the game airing on USA Network.
Phoenix’s stance is blunt: keep competing, fix the defensive basics, and trust the season still has room to turn. Kahleah Copper said on Monday, “We needed to play harder. We know what we have to do. We have to continue to hold this standard of what it takes to be a championship team and what it took for us to do that last year. It’s not easy. It just doesn’t carry over just because you did it. So for us, it’s about just everybody looking in the mirror.”.
“There’s nothing else to talk about.”
A season that began with a statement, then unraveled
Phoenix came out of the gate last season-ending uncertainty with a 99-66 season-opening win over the defending champion Las Vegas Aces, putting the league on notice and underscoring that their WNBA Finals run wasn’t a fluke.
But since then, the direction has changed hard. Phoenix has dropped eight of its nine games since that opener, including a slide that is their longest losing streak since 2023.
Defensive problems and shooting issues are driving much of it. Alyssa Thomas. who finished third in MVP voting last season. went as far as saying the Mercury must “decide if we want to defend.” Thomas said following Phoenix’s 97-88 loss to the Los Angeles Sparks. “It’s a want and it’s a will. Teams are coming in and getting anything and everything that they want against us. I mean we come in here every time and we say it’s three games. it’s four games. it’s five games. but at some point we got to go out there and defend.”.
The early-season numbers are grim. Through the first 10 games of the WNBA season, Phoenix ranks bottom five in both defensive ranking (110.0) and offensive ranking (104.7). Offensively. Phoenix is 11th in field-goal percentage (41.6%). 12th in points scored (83.0). 14th in field goals per game (27.2). and dead last in opponents made 3-pointers per game (10.3).
Tibbetts pointed to a failure to get to shooters and guard well enough to prevent long stretches. “Teams were just getting comfortable and we’re not doing a good enough job of getting to their shooters… Threes are a problem right now,” Tibbetts said on May 21. “Everyone’s going to have to step up and we’ve got a lot of new players that just need to understand there’s a lot of great players in this league and you got to guard if you’re not ready to guard. we’re going to get burned. And that’s what’s happening right now.”.
Some continuity returned, but the offseason tested them
Phoenix returned four starters from last season—every starter except Satou Sabally—and the expectation was that continuity would carry momentum from the WNBA Finals.
Instead, the Mercury say the condensed offseason and the timing of adjustments have made it harder to lock in. Their lineup includes international talent. and Monique Akoa Makani. Jovana Nogic. and Noemie Brochant. for example. missed training camp and the two-game preseason because they were playing overseas. With a jam-packed schedule and limited practice time. Phoenix has had to “jell together and make adjustments on the fly. ” according to how the team has described its early work.
Phoenix made roster moves as the defensive issues piled up. The Mercury waived guard Kiana Williams on May 31 and signed Lexi Held on Sunday in an effort to address the team’s defense. Tibbetts also hinted that more changes could come. “When you’re not winning, there’s moves that going to make,” Tibbetts said. “I’m sure that we’ve got something coming.”.
That tension—between the insistence there’s no panic and the reality of a team searching for answers—has been the defining feel around Phoenix this season.
The Commissioner’s Cup offered a rare home chance, and it still slipped away
The Mercury were given an opportunity to break the losing spell in the 2026 WNBA Commissioner’s Cup. starting with a home game before heading into a four-game road trip. Phoenix opened the in-season tournament in front of a sellout crowd of 9. 234 at the Mortgage Matchup Center with a nationally-televised broadcast against the Lynx.
Copper spoke as if the moment mattered. “We going to try to go get that,” she said on Sunday. “Every single day it’s just a grind right now. Nobody’s quitting, nobody’s giving up.”
But the Lynx imposed themselves early. Minnesota shot 75% from the field in the first half and scored 67 points by halftime. the third-most points in any half during a road game in WNBA history. Phoenix conceded 23 points on 14 turnovers, and the Mercury eventually surrendered 50 paint points in the 34-point loss.
Phoenix shot 34% from the field and went 10-of-27 from the 3-point line.
For Thomas, the losing streak has been psychologically unfamiliar. She described it as “uncharted territory for myself. ” adding: “The biggest thing is it’s not a sprint. it’s a marathon. It is not easy when we’ve had a lot of moving pieces and we can make as many excuses as we want. but at the end of the day we know how to play basketball. It is about committing ourselves to what the coaches are asking us to do. It starts on the defensive end.”.
Phoenix’s record, and the memories it brings back
Last season, Phoenix never dipped below .500 during the team’s run to the WNBA Finals. This year has looked nothing like that path. Phoenix’s 2-8 start is the team’s worst since 2023, when coach Vanessa Nygaard was fired after Phoenix dropped to 2-10.
In 2023, Phoenix finished with a 9-31 record before Tibbetts took over as head coach in October 2023 ahead of the 2024 season.
Tibbetts said the team is not seeing itself the way the record might suggest. “I don’t think that we’re reeling or on our heels or anything like that. I mean obviously none of us are happy with (our record). None of us thought this was going to be a part of it, but here we are,” he said. “We just got to keep competing and then offensively we believe in our shooters. we feel like that tide is going to turn.”.
Copper framed leadership as repetition—one season’s painful lesson applied to another. She said she keeps reminding teammates that her 2021 championship run with the Chicago Sky followed a similar pattern. Copper said, “In 2021, (the Sky) lost seven straight. Then we won seven straight, finished 16-16, went on a run and peaked at the right time. It is still early for us. We’re still getting to know each other. People in, people out figuring it out. It is really no excuses at this point.”.
Nine days away from another set of challenges
The road does not get easier for Phoenix. The Mercury are heading out for a four-game road trip to Seattle, Portland, Golden State, and Dallas over the next nine days.
For Copper, the answer to the losing streak is straightforward: keep speaking the same message and lean on experience. “It’s nothing else to talk about,” she said. “For me, it’s just using my experience and just telling everybody, it is cool we’re going get through where we’re going to.”
The Mercury still insist the tide can turn—without pretending the defensive breakdowns, shooting slump, and roster reshuffling haven’t already done real damage to their confidence.
In the end, their message is clear: no panic button, just focus. How long that holds will likely depend on whether they can stop the opponents’ runs early enough to give their shooters a chance to catch up.
Phoenix Mercury WNBA Nate Tibbetts Kahleah Copper Alyssa Thomas Minnesota Lynx Lexi Held Kiana Williams WNBA Commissioner's Cup losing streak defense shooting slump