Kahleah Copper goes off for 38 points, Mercury pull off dramatic 88-85 victory over Dream

Kahleah Copper scorched for 38 points to set a career-high in her WNBA career as led the Phoenix Mercury to a nail-biting 88-85 win over the Atlanta Dream on Saturday night.

Diana Taurasi scored 15 points while Sophie Cunningham was the clutch hero late with two threes and 10 points for the Mercury (1-1).

Allisha Gray had 22 points and Rhyne Howard added 21 as the Dream (1-1) dropped their first game of the season.

Home Advantage Off to a Bang

To ignite a roar of cheers in front of the 10,251 Mercury fans, aka the “X-Factor,” Copper scored six points to construct an early 12-2 run and totaled 11 in the first quarter.

Bouncing back from a slow start, Howard netted seven points of her own for the Dream who, as a team, shot 4-for-21 (19%) from the field in the frame and trailed 24-15.

Scratching and clawing despite going 2-for-13 (15.4%) from three through the first two quarters, Atlanta stayed in the ballgame as Howard went off for 10 more points in the second and 17 in the half.

Rolling over to the third, Phoenix would keep the narrow edge over Atlanta as their defense continued to play a key part in the win. The Mercury forced the Dream into turning over the ball 14 on the night.

“Howard had it going in the first half, had 17 and finished with 21,” Tibbetts said. “We changed the matchup to start the third quarter because Kah had two fouls and Bec [Rebecca Allen] went to Howard. Gray and Howard were two players we wanted to take away three-point shots.”

The Mercury were giving the Dream a vast amount of issues in the paint, leading in rebounds 38-33 courtesy of Natasha Mack collecting 11, a career-high.

“She’s going to get more and more comfortable in this role, more comfortable in being a WNBA player,” Tibbetts said on Mack. “She is playing with great players around her who trust her… She gets deflections, she gets blocked shots. Her conditioning is going to continue to get better, but she is going up against some post players that she has never gone up against at that level. She has been huge for us.”

Copper, Cunningham Coming Up Clutch

Copper continued to torch the rim with a 26-point explosion in the second half. Overall, Copper was 11-for-20 (55%) shooting and 3-for-5 (60%) from deep.

Her offensive willingness to drive to the bucket and her tenacity on the other side of the ball was unmatched when going against the Dream, two skills that have translated so far from the Chicago Sky to the Mercury.

Nabbing their first lead 73-72, however, Atlanta was not going down without a fight. The Dream outscored the Mercury 25-23 in the final quarter.

But with just 1:09 left in the game, Cunningham nailed a three from the corner and lifted the roof off of Footprint Center, reclaiming a Mercury lead, 84-83. She was 3-for-5 from the field and clutch from three when it mattered the most, 2-for-3.