The Phoenix Mercury have three games left on the regular-season calendar. In order to control their own fate and clinch a playoff spot a year after playing for a WNBA championship, they need to win their final three games.

That feat got exponentially more difficult on Monday. The Mercury announced that 10-time WNBA All-Star Diana Taurasi, the team’s second-leading scorer, will miss the remainder of the regular season with a quad strain.

The Mercury are competing with Atlanta, New York, Minnesota and Los Angeles for the last two playoff spots. Dallas has also yet to clinch a spot, but with just one more win needed, the Wings are on the verge of locking it up.

Taurasi has led the Mercury in scoring in eight games this season while averaging 16.7 points across 31 total games. Which leads to the first and most obvious question for the Mercury’s playoff chances: Who starts in her place?

Only five active players have made multiple starts for the Mercury this season: Skylar Diggins-Smith, Diamond DeShields, Sophie Cunningham, Shey Peddy and Brianna Turner. That’s the lineup that Phoenix went with in an 87-63 loss to Connecticut on Aug. 2, the first game that Taurasi missed.

Together, those five players average 49.6 points per game, making up about 60 percent of the team’s total scoring. Taurasi accounts for 20 percent of Phoenix’s points, second only to Diggins-Smith, whose 19.7 per contest make up 24 percent of the Mercury’s point production.

The Phoenix Mercury has signed Yvonne “Vonnie” Turner to a hardship contract due to an injury suffered by Diana Taurasi. pic.twitter.com/1Avbds0zJ7

— Phoenix Mercury (@PhoenixMercury) August 8, 2022

The Mercury signed Yvonne “Vonnie” Turner to a hardship contract on Monday to fill the roster spot. Turner, a 12-year pro who has spent most of her career overseas, played for Phoenix from 2017-19. In stints with the Dream and the Lynx this season, she averaged 4.3 points and two rebounds in six games.

Though Turner was signed to replace Taurasi on the roster, it seems unlikely the guard will work her way into the starting lineup.

The Mercury’s best bet is to go with the established players they know, and the lineup they used when Taurasi was first sidelined. Turner, who was named to the Big-12 All-Defensive team three times during her college career at Nebraska, is best utilized coming off the bench for her defensive acumen and experience.

With the starting lineup issue resolved, the Mercury still have a shot at the postseason. Their final three games come against Minnesota, Dallas and Chicago. At first glance, it seems plausible for Phoenix to win two of those games, with the Sky being the most difficult opponent. But in reality, that’s a terrible draw for the Mercury.

They are 0-2 against Dallas this season, 0-2 against Chicago, and 0-3 against the Lynx, and all of those losses came with Taurasi on the floor. Some of them also came before the team’s contract divorce with Tina Charles, so chemistry issues may have been a factor. That points to the chaos the Mercury have endured this season, with the Taurasi injury simply the latest occurrence in a long list of setbacks.

Even if Phoenix does get into the postseason, advancing past the first round would be a daunting task without their second-leading scorer and 18-year veteran. The Mercury haven’t ruled out Taurasi returning for a postseason run, like she did last year on an injured ankle, but it’s too soon to tell how capable she would be in that scenario.

The Mercury have weathered all kinds of storms this season, from the traumatic wrongful detainment of Brittney Griner in Russia, to the Charles issue and conflict between players and the coaching staff. This setback could be the final blow to their season, whether that happens in the next three contests or in the playoffs.

Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.

The grass court chaos of Wimbledon didn't disappoint this week, as the unpredictable surface claimed more than one surprise victim in the 2025 Grand Slam's first round.

A full 10 of the London tournament's 32 seeded players fell in the competition's first round, including four of the WTA's Top 10: World No. 2 Coco Gauff, No. 3 Jessica Pegula, No. 6 Qinwen Zheng, and No. 9 Paula Badosa.

"I should just play no tournaments, get no wins, then roll into Wimbledon, and maybe I'll have better results," US star Pegula joked after her two-set Tuesday loss to Italy's No. 116 Elisabetta Cocciaretto, referencing her recent wins.

Gauff's short Wimbledon outing also represented a new challenge for the 21-year-old standout, as the top-ranked US tennis player struggled to bounce back after winning the 2025 French Open last month.

"I feel like mentally I was a little bit overwhelmed with everything that came afterwards," Gauff told ESPN. "So I didn’t feel like I had enough time to celebrate and also get back into it."

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The upsets continued as Wimbledon entered its second round on Wednesday morning, claiming several more seeded players like world No. 5 Jasmine Paolini and No. 15 Diana Shnaider, though both No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and unseeded fan favorite Naomi Osaka cruised into the Slam's third round on two-set wins.

No. 8 Madison Keys now leads the US contingent, with fellow US contender No. 12 Amanda Anisimova joining the 2025 Australian Open champion in snagging their own two-set, second-round victories on Wednesday.

How to watch the 2025 Wimbledon Championships

Second-round play at the 2025 Wimbledon women's singles tournament continues on Thursday, as seven US players — including No. 10 Emma Navarro and No. 28 Sofia Kenin — look to advance to the competition's third round.

Live continuous coverage of the London Grand Slam airs on ESPN.

The world No. 1 USWNT will close out their summer international break against a familiar foe on Wednesday night, facing North American rival No. 8 Canada for the first time this year.

"It's never friendly, you know? It's always like a final," US midfielder Sam Coffey told media earlier this week. "We all know each other super well."

"I'm really excited to be a part of it again for our younger, newer players," she continued. "I think it's going to be a huge learning opportunity on what representing this crest means."

The Northern neighbors are the USWNT's most frequent opponent, with the US entering the pair's 67th meeting with a 53-4-9 all-time record against Canada.

Wednesday's matchup will also mark Canada's first US clash under new head coach Casey Stoney, who joined the team in January following her abrupt June 2024 dismissal by the NWSL's San Diego Wave FC.

As for US boss Emma Hayes, she'll be looking for yet another refreshed set of starters on Wednesday after swapping out all 11 players between the team's two friendlies against Ireland last week.

"It's a testament to players and staff alike that we can rotate to different groups like we did last game, and everybody's understanding [the tactics] to varying degrees," Hayes said on Tuesday.

With months to go before the next USWNT camp in October, Wednesday's showdown serves as the last chance for bubble players to prove their worth, all while the team aims to cap the summer window with a big win over their longtime rivals.

How to watch the USWNT vs. Canada on Wednesday

The USWNT will cap their three-friendly summer break against Canada at 7:30 PM ET in Washington, DC.

Live coverage of the clash will air on TNT.

The Indiana Fever lifted their first trophy since 2012 on Tuesday night, winning the 2025 WNBA Commissioner's Cup with a 74-59 upset victory over reigning Cup champs Minnesota — all while injured star guard Caitlin Clark watched from the sidelines.

To snag the win, Indiana leaned on balanced scoring, with forward Natasha Howard's 16-point, 12-rebound double-double leading the Fever's five double-digit shooters.

At the same time, the Fever employed a shutdown defense, limiting the Lynx to their lowest point total of the season.

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Beyond the $500,000 payout, Tuesday's win gives the 8-8 Fever a momentum boost as the team continues contending with both high-profile departures and the limited availability of their floor general.

"We have a resilient group, you know?" Indiana head coach Stephanie White said after the game. "They're tough, mentally and physically, they pull for one another. I'm just really proud."

"It felt good to get a win under gut-check circumstances," echoed guard Kelsey Mitchell. "To have so much going on and still stay consistently for each other, it was beautiful. It felt really amazing."

As for the league-leading Lynx, the Commissioner's Cup loss won't impact Minnesota's regular-season WNBA standings — and they’ll hope to build on the learnings from last night's ego blow.

Minnesota also has a bit of history one their side, as the last two Commissioner's Cup runners-up went on to win the WNBA Championship in the same year.

"We have to take this game to heart and learn from the mistakes we made, the way we showed up, the way we prepared, and make sure we don't do it again," said Lynx center Alanna Smith.

How to watch the Indiana Fever, Minnesota Lynx this week

Neither 2025 Commissioner's Cup contender will have much time to reflect on Tuesday's game, as both Indiana and Minnesota will dive back into regular-season WNBA play on Thursday.

The Fever will host the Las Vegas Aces at 7 PM ET, airing on Prime, before the Washington Mystics visit the Lynx at 8 PM ET, with live coverage on WNBA League Pass.

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham turned heads on Tuesday, criticizing the latest WNBA expansion plans in light of ongoing WNBPA CBA negotiations.

Cunningham drew ire from some fans after expressing skepticism about the WNBA awarding expansion teams to Detroit and Cleveland over other possible cities, while also suggesting that the league might be growing too quickly.

"You want to listen to your players, too. Where do they want to play?" she told reporters ahead of Indiana's Commissioner's Cup win. "I'm not so sure what the thought process is there, but at the end of the day, you want to make sure that you're not expanding our league too fast."

"It's kind of a hard decision-making situation. But man, I don't know how excited people are to be going to Detroit or [Cleveland]."

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Elsewhere, Phoenix Mercury forward Satou Sabally also voiced her expansion concerns on Tuesday, calling on the WNBA to keep player support at the forefront when adding expansion teams.

"We really have to put an emphasis on the players that are in our league right now," she told reporters. "Maybe focus on the teams that find excuses continuously to lack investment in their players before we focus on adding more to the grain of people that can't really be sustained."