Mercury beat reporter Dylan Kane joined Powell for the podcast, reacting to Game 3 and discussing their chances to force Game 5 and beyond. The first issue Kane pointed to was the Aces’ success on the perimeter.
“It wasn’t just the volume of the three pointers; it was how they were getting them,” Kane said. “I think Phoenix overhelped early on in the first half, especially Jewell. Jewell Loyd had four three-pointers in a row, absolutely catching fire. And every single time the ball touched the paint, every single time someone drove, the entire Mercury defense would just collapse on them and it led to wide open opportunities for the Aces.”
“Becoming Caitlin Clark” is out now!
Howard Megdal’s newest book is here! “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar” captures both the historic nature of Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.
Powell took a more holistic view, saying that the Aces are better prepared to match up across the floor. And, obviously, having the four-time MVP leading the charge doesn’t hurt either.
“The Aces have done an excellent job of exploiting the mismatches, but I find that the Mercury are still struggling to do so,” Powell said. “I mean, an observation I had was you had Jewell guarding Satou [Sabally] and, you know, trying to front her, trying to, and clearly, Jewell Loyd was working as hard as she could. The Mercury waited so long to get Satou the ball.
“There was, I think, one play where you had Kierstan Bell on the help pretty quickly, which was impressive, but Kierstan Bell didn’t get there every time. I just felt like, still, the Mercury are really struggling to really use their size to their advantage.”
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The series will stay in Phoenix for Game 4 at 8 p.m. ET on Friday at the newly-named Mortgage Matchup Center, previously PHX Arena. Make sure to subscribe to The IX Sports on YouTube to get all of Powell’s videos throughout the WNBA Finals!
