There was something about being down eight points going into the fourth quarter of a do-or-die game that awoke the bear in Diana Taurasi.

After scoring just 10 points through three quarters, the 39-year-old delivered 14 in the fourth to lead the No. 5 Mercury to an 87-84 win over the No. 2 Aces in Game 5 of the WNBA semifinals on Friday.

After the game, before Phoenix head coach could even hear the end of the question about what gave Phoenix the win, she said, “Diana making shots. She gave us hope.”

On a fractured foot and a sprained ankle, Taurasi hit back-to-back 3-pointers to start the fourth quarter. Those buckets helped Phoenix finally re-gain the lead over Las Vegas, who had been ahead by 10 points through much of the third.

In the last two minutes of a tie game, the 6-foot point guard blocked a layup attempt by 6-8 Liz Cambage and immediately followed that with another 3-pointer.

“In these moments, you just can’t care anymore,” Taurasi nonchalantly said of her performance after the game.

"SHE'S THE GOAT!"

Brittney Griner had to video bomb Diana Taurasi's interview with @ROSGO21 😅 pic.twitter.com/mltIh34AMu

— ESPN (@espn) October 9, 2021

The Mercury made it through 16 games this season without their star, getting Taurasi back only recently, in the second round of playoffs against the Seattle Storm.

“It shows what happens when she’s on the court,” Brondello said. “That’s how special she is. We knew if we could just get her healthy, get her back, good things would happen.”

Taurasi wasn’t the only injured Phoenix player. Kia Nurse is out for the rest of the season after tearing her ACL in Game 4, and Sophie Cunningham, who played a big role in getting the Mercury through the first round of playoffs, sat out of Friday’s game with a calf injury.

Brondello hopes Cunningham will be back on Wednesday for Game 2 of the Finals at the latest.

‘I’ve got so much respect for Shey’

Taurasi saved the Mercury in the fourth quarter, but giving Phoenix momentum in the first half was Shey Peddy, who took on a bigger role in the absence of Nurse and Cunningham. Finishing the game with a playoff-high 15 points, the 32-year-old led Phoenix to a 20-14 lead in the first 10 minutes with seven points and strong defense.

“She’s resilient, to be quite honest,” said Brondello. “She fits in, wherever you need her.”

Averaging 5.4 points per game this season, the guard came to the Mercury in August 2020 after getting waived by the Washington Mystics. She was drafted 23rd overall by the Chicago Sky in 2012 and subsequently cut in three WNBA training camps — 2012 by the Sky, then 2013 and 2019 by the Mystics — and didn’t make her WNBA debut until June 2019 with Washington.

Teammate Skylar Diggins-Smith’s eyes filled with tears when talking about Peddy during the postgame press conference.

“I’ve got so much respect for Shey,” she said through tears. “Her story is just so inspiring. She just works so hard … Even when my confidence is down, she pushes me. She’s just a great teammate.”

Patience is a virtue! 🙏🏾 https://t.co/VKO8mz5mef

— Shey Peddy (@SheyP11) October 9, 2021

Diggins-Smith is heading to her first WNBA Finals after eight years in the league, contributing 14 points and eight assists against the Aces on Friday.

Brittney Griner had a team-high 28 points, along with nine rebounds, to continue her dominant playoff run. She added the most important block of the night in the final two seconds of the game to keep the Aces from tying the game at 84.

The Mercury will face the Chicago Sky in a rematch of the 2014 WNBA Finals, which Phoenix won in three games with Taurasi and Griner. Neither team has been in the Finals since then.

Game 1 of the best-of-five championship series tips off Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on ABC, Sportsnet and NBA TV.

Jessa Braun is an editorial intern for Just Women’s Sports. She is also the Head of North American Content for the Women’s Sports Alliance. You can find her on Twitter @jessabraun.

The Women's Super League (WSL) is growing, with the UK league's top two flights deciding in a Monday expansion vote to enlarge its top tier from 12 to 14 teams ahead of the 2026/27 season.

The number of matches played each season will also balloon from 22 to 26 games to accommodate the incoming clubs, as will established cup competitions.

Monday also saw the WSL vote down a prior proposal to temporarily suspend the relegation and promotion process to accommodate this expansion, deciding instead to adopt a "two up, one down" model for the second-tier WSL2 next season.

As such, the top two finishers of the 2025/26 WSL2 season will automatically join the higher-tier WSL, while the WSL's last-place team will battle the WSL2's third-place club in "a high-profile, high stakes match" for the final spot in the top flight.

After reaching 14 teams, both leagues will return to relegating the last-place WSL finisher while promoting the WSL2's top team for the following season.

Along with the increased investment in club infrastructure, a 14-team WSL keeps pace with the global women's game — most notably, the NWSL, which will become a 16-team league in 2026.

"Our priority was to find a route that would benefit the whole women's game pyramid, and we believe this next evolution of women's professional football will raise minimum standards, create distinction, and incentivize investment across the board," said WSL Football CEO Nikki Doucet.

With EuroBasket set to tip off on Wednesday and injuries mounting league-wide, WNBA teams are filling out dwindling rosters with more short-term contracts — and calling back some familiar faces along the way.

While some European standouts withdrew from EuroBasket consideration — including Phoenix's Satou Sabally and Seattle's Gabby Williams — others, like New York's Leonie Fiebich and Golden State's Temi Fagbenle, will join their national teams for the regional FIBA tournament through the end of June.

Due to these planned absences, WNBA teams temporarily suspend their EuroBasket players' contracts, allowing squads to add others to their rosters.

Players signed due to temporary absences are technically on rest-of-season deals, though the agreements can end whenever the missing athletes return.

In contrast, the league requires that teams release any hardship signings due to injury once squads tally enough healthy original players to satisfy the WNBA's 10-athlete roster minimum.

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Featuring a lineup stacked with international talent, Golden State made the most transactions this week, temporarily suspending four regular contracts as 2025 EuroBasket stars departed for the annual competition.

To bolster their depleted bench, the Valkyries brought back 2025 WNBA Draft Cinderella pick Kaitlyn Chen and recent training camp participant Laeticia Amihere on short-term contracts, in addition to guard Aerial Powers and forward Chloe Bibby.

Elsewhere, after losing forward Maddy Siegrist to injury and temporarily suspending the contracts of centers Teaira McCowan and Luisa Geiselsöder, Dallas acquired center Li Yueru from Seattle — with the Wings possibly needing additional hardship signings in the coming days.

The Storm snagged two future draft picks in the Saturday deal — a second-round selection in 2026 and a third-round pick in 2027.

Ultimately, teams are striving to find a balance between stocking up and maintaining consistency, all while operating under the WNBA's roster constraints — with further league expansion fast approaching.

The 2025 WNBA Commissioner's Cup will wrap up its conference play on Tuesday, as both Eastern and Western teams battle for a ticket to the in-season competition's championship game — and a cut of the $500,000 prize pool.

With 12 of the league's 13 teams facing off across Tuesday's WNBA courts, the results will set the stage by minting the two squads who will battle in the July 1st final showdown.

Reigning Commissioner's Cup champs Minnesota have the West's easiest path, as a win over the Las Vegas Aces will send the Lynx to a second straight final.

Should the Lynx fall to the Aces, however, Seattle can grab the Western Conference berth by beating the Los Angeles Sparks.

Meanwhile in the East, a surging Atlanta could land a trip to the final by topping New York, while the Liberty need both a win over the Dream plus a loss by the Indiana Fever to clinch their own return ticket to the Cup's grand finale.

If New York does take down Atlanta, the Fever could advance to the team's first-ever Commissioner's Cup final by beating the struggling Connecticut Sun.

How to watch Tuesday's 2025 WNBA Commissioner's Cup games

All of Tuesday's six WNBA games count toward the 2025 Commissioner's Cup tally.

The action begins with the Atlanta Dream tipping off against the New York Liberty while the Indiana Fever battles the Connecticut Sun at 7 PM ET, live on WNBA League Pass.

Chicago Sky star Angel Reese made headlines this week, with the second-year WNBA forward announcing that she has trademarked word "mebounds" — a slang term opposing fans use to describe Reese rebounding her own missed shots.

"Whoever came up with the 'mebounds' thing, y’all ate that up, because mebounds, rebounds, keybounds...anything that comes off that board, it's mine," Reese said in a TikTok video on Saturday.

"And a brand? That's six figures right there," she continued, referencing her trademark application. "The trolling — I love when y'all do it because the ideas be good!"

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Currently averaging 11.9 boards per matchup, Reese is leading the WNBA in rebounds for the second straight season.

Her rookie campaign saw Reese average 13.1 boards per game, a rate that set a single-season league record. She also blasted through the WNBA's consecutive double-double record last season, claiming it with 10 straight before extending it to an impressive 15 games.

Along with the average rebounds record, Reese also broke the single-season total rebounds record previously held by retired Minnesota Lynx legend Sylvia Fowles — a mark that was later surpassed by 2024 MVP A'ja Wilson following Reese's season-ending wrist injury.

"Statistically, all the rebounds that I get aren't always just mine," Reese added in her Saturday social media post. "They're the defense's, too, or somebody else on my team."