Kia Nurse made personal history Tuesday night with her first buzzer-beating, just inside half court game-winner to complete a stunning Phoenix Mercury comeback against the Chicago Sky.

“Not like that,” Nurse said after her near 40-footer at Wintrust Center as time expired for an 84-83 Mercury win. “I hit one in Australia to win the game, but we had two possessions after that. But not at the buzzer and I’m dead honest when I tell you I never make it in shootaround. I always think today is the day.”

Her shootaround attempt in morning practice rimmed out, but the one that counted swished through followed by the Mercury piling on their first-year guard after just their second win in the last nine games (including the 2019 playoffs) vs. the Sky.

The Mercury (4-3) led by 11 (47-36) at halftime but turned the ball over constantly to fall behind by 10 (80-70) with 3:37 remaining.

“In the past, we would have lost that game by 20 to be quite honest,” Mercury coach Sandy Brondello said. “But we found our composure. We got stops when we needed it and made shots. I’ve been really impressed with this team how we’ve been sticking together.”

The comeback began at the free throw line, a pair by Skylar Diggins-Smith then by Brittney Griner. Megan Walker had a steal, Griner rebounded a Nurse miss and Diggins-Smith fed Brianna Turner for a reverse layup, cutting the Mercury deficit to four at 1:37.

Chicago’s Azura Stevens pulled two offensive rebounds before getting to the line for two free throws, but Diggins-Smith hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead back to three with just under a minute left.

Walker committed a foul before a Sky inbounds with 37.7 seconds left, seemingly a mistake that Phoenix could not overcome. Courtney Vandersloot made the technical foul for 83-79 before Diamond DeShields took an unnecessarily quick shot that Turner rebounded.

DeShields fouled Walker, who made two free throws at 29.9. Then off a Kahleah Copper miss, Nurse came up with her eighth rebound and took off rather than calling timeout.

“I got the ball then I looked at the clock and it was running,” Nurse said. “In my mind, I didn’t think to call a timeout right away. I’m not sure why. I thought I can get to the rim in four seconds, I’ve done it before. I tried to get down there, Sloot kind of stepped in a little bit.

“I don’t know why I went to the Euro step,” before shooting. “It’s a lot of luck. Some of it is confidence. I usually shoot my half court shots standing straight still like I’m at the free throw line. This one I was running and had a little more momentum. It was more aim the ball, hold your follow through and hope for the best.”

Her best was good enough for the Mercury to pull out a second straight win for the first time this season and send Chicago (2-5) to a fifth consecutive defeat.

All five Mercury starters scored in double figures topped by Diggins-Smith with 24 and Nurse with 18. Griner, WNBA Western Conference Player of the Week, took just six shots and had 13 points after scoring 27 in each of the previous two games. Turner and Walker had 12 and 11, and the Mercury led 35-28 on the boards, somewhat offsetting their turnover issues.

DeShields led all scorers with 26, Vandersloot had a double-double (17/10 assists) and Ruthy Hebard added 14 for Chicago, still without Candace Parker (ankle), Allie Quigley (hamstring) and Stefanie Dolson, returning the Olympic 3×3 qualifying tournament in Austria.

Diggins-Smith and Nurse combined for 10 turnovers but also made mammoth plays to keep the game in play when it seemed lost.

“It was all of us,” Diggins-Smith said. “It was the bench talking, it was the coaches talking. I had a lot of family in the stands. If we get an opportunity at the end with this team, we know we can win. It was great composure the last two minutes. We all kind of huddled and looked at each other and were like let’s stay together and chip away at it.

“Shout out to Kia Nurse for having the confidence to take that shot. I lost my mind. That was insane. We’ve had so many moments like that just in my short years being on this squad. It shows you the heart on this team. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good and in the end we’ll take that.”

Mercury still sixth in AP power poll

The Mercury remain sixth in this week’s Associated Press WNBA power poll coming off a 1-1 week. 

Seattle is back at No. 1 ahead of Las Vegas and previous poll topper Connecticut. New York is fourth with Atlanta leaping five spots to No. 5.

After the Mercury are Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, Minnesota, Dallas and Indiana.

Up next

The Mercury and Sky meet again on Thursday at Phoenix Suns Arena. After the back-to-back games, the teams will not see each other until Aug. 31, also in Phoenix. 

Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-8053. Follow him on Twitter @jeffmetcalfe.

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