The Phoenix Mercury’s season officially came to a close Saturday, as the team fell to the Las Vegas Aces in a Game 2 blowout to close out their first-round playoff series.

The 117-80 scoreline would imply an implosion, but the Mercury left the contest with plenty to take proud in, even after enduring a season marked by turmoil.

Phoenix Mercury: Year in Review

What went right?

Not too much went Phoenix’s way this season, as the team battled injury, absences and general turbulence in the follow-up to its 2021 run to the WNBA Finals.

Under rookie coach Vanessa Nygaard, the Mercury stumbled to a 2-8 start, looking far from their playoff best. But the team did engineer a turnaround, ending the season with a 15-21 record and a playoff berth.

With limited resources, Phoenix fought to secure the team’s 10th straight postseason appearance, locking up the eighth and final playoff spot.

What went wrong?

Brittney Griner has been wrongfully detained in Russia since February. Her plight made the 2022 campaign an emotional one for the entire WNBA, but especially for Griner’s teammates in Phoenix.

In early August, the Mercury star was sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony on drug charges. The U.S. government is working to secure her release through a prisoner swap.

“It’s heavy. It’s just heavy y’all,” Mercury guard Skylar Diggins-Smith said. “Y’all asking these questions don’t really take away from our trauma. You just add to our trauma. We can break down and cry in front of y’all, so you can see how we feel. I don’t know what else to really say about it. It’s our sister. This is not some random Jane off the street. It’s not anything we’re politicizing. It’s a human being and this is our real life friend and real life sister.”

While Griner’s situation makes the more mundane trials of the WNBA season seem small, the Mercury roster became more and more depleted as the season continued.

The team agreed to a contract divorce with Tina Charles in June. Then, veteran guard Diana Taurasi suffered a quad injury that sidelined her for the end of the regular season and the playoffs. Diggins-Smith stepped away from the team due to personal reasons, and she also missed the end of the regular season and the playoffs.

Things went from bad to worse for Phoenix in Game 1 of their playoff series against the Aces, as Shey Peddy went down with a no-contact injury, rupturing her Achilles.

“I don’t know that anybody in this league has been dealt a tougher hand than Vanessa Nygaard,” said Aces head coach Becky Hammon after Game 1.

Diamond DeShields, who averaged 19.5 points and 4.5 rebounds during the playoffs, spoke to the toll of the mounting setbacks on her and her team.

“At a certain point when you take enough hits, you get tired of people saying how strong you are,” said DeShields after the Mercury’s Game 2 loss. “I’m proud to have shared the floor with this team this year.”

What comes next?

Much remains in the air for Phoenix heading into the offseason, but the team’s primary focus almost certainly remains their push for Griner’s safe return to the United States.

“There were a lot of challenges, just really proud of our team and grateful for the opportunity to represent the Phoenix Mercury. They have great fight, great grit. They’re hardy, they’re tough,” said Nygaard following the Mercury’s playoff exit. “But we know there’s bigger things in life, too. As hard as our season was, it’s not as hard as BG’s experience right now being in a Russian jail. So, we try to keep all that in perspective.”

On the court, the Mercury will have to decide what pieces to build around.

Diggins-Smith’s late-season absence and public spats with Nygaard have led to speculation about the 32-year-old’s future in Phoenix, though team ownership has insisted she will be back next season. Taurasi is also a question mark, with the 40-year-old’s retirement likely on the horizon.

After a taxing and chaotic season, the Mercury will look to reassess and rebuild in hopes of a smoother and more consistent 2023.

The biggest victors in the WNBA last weekend were the Seattle Storm, as the fifth-place contenders took down the last two league champions to record six wins in their last seven games.

The Storm first took down 2022 and 2023 champs Las Vegas 90-83 on Friday before toppling reigning title-winners New York 89-79 on Sunday.

Guard Skylar Diggins and forward Nneka Ogwumike powered Seattle's two games, putting up 44 and 51 points, respectively, over the weekend.

Forward Gabby Williams also helped fuel the Storm's weekend with two double-double performances.

Seattle is now just one game behind the similarly surging fourth-place Atlanta Dream, while trailing the red-hot No. 3 Phoenix Mercury by 1.5 games.

"Staying ready is what the group is," Storm head coach Noelle Quinn told reporters on Friday. "They're professionals, they're vets."

Teams at the top of the WNBA standings aren't the only squads that saw weekend success, as the No. 6 Golden State Valkyries snagged their second win in a row with Sunday's 87-63 thrashing of the last-place Connecticut Sun.

Despite registering Friday losses, both No. 7 Las Vegas and the No. 9 Washington Mystics finished the weekend on a high note, earning big Sunday wins over the No. 8 Indiana Fever and No. 12 Dallas Wings, respectively.

How to watch the Seattle Storm this week

The Storm will suit back up for another tricky WNBA test on Tuesday, when Seattle hosts the always-dangerous Indiana Fever at 10 PM ET.

The game will air live on NBA TV.

The reigning champion New York Liberty battled through injury and absences over the weekend, narrowly retaining their second-place spot in the WNBA standings despite seeing their losing streak extend to two games with Sunday's 89-79 stumble against the Seattle Storm.

Already missing starting guard Leonie Fiebich, who is overseas competing at the 2025 FIBA EuroBasket tournament, the Liberty also played without center Jonquel Jones and guard Sabrina Ionescu.

While Ionescu is day-to-day with a neck issue, Jones will miss four to six weeks of action due to an ankle injury, the team announced on Saturday.

Despite dropping three of their last four matchups, the champs appear to be taking their recent downturn in stride.

"This isn't going to be the hardest thing that we face all season," said forward Breanna Stewart after Sunday's loss. "We have to kind of embrace the adversity a little bit, whether it's we're down players or things happen in the middle of the game."

New York wasn't the only team in trouble this weekend, though, as the Indiana Fever followed up last Thursday's stumble against the Golden State Valkyries with an 89-81 Sunday loss to the Las Vegas Aces.

Fever guard Caitlin Clark is now one-for-17 from behind the arc in her last two games, as Indiana struggles to break out of their eighth-place standing.

How to watch the New York Liberty this week

New York will hope for added firepower in order to snap their losing streak on Wednesday, when they'll face a rising Golden State squad at 10 PM ET.

Coverage of the game will air live on WNBA League Pass.

The NWSL is officially taking a breather, with the league kicking off the 2025 extended summer break after a roller-coaster weekend slate.

With half the of the 26-match regular season in the books, the No. 1 Kansas City Current extended their lead on the NWSL table to a towering eight points after defeating No. 11 Angel City 1-0 on Friday.

Helping balloon Kansas City's lead was No. 7 Racing Louisville, who kept No. 2 Orlando from claiming any points by securing a 2-0 upset win over the Pride on Friday.

With wins in five of their last seven matches, Louisville's refreshed roster has Racing entering the 2025 summer break with a 6-5-2 NWSL record, as the 2021 expansion side zeros in on a franchise-first playoff run.

"It's all about us. We're not really focused on the other team like we did a little last year," said midfielder Taylor Flint. "What are we going to do — what's our identity? I think that's a huge part of how we've been winning all these games."

On the other end of the table, the bottom four NWSL teams — Angel City, the No. 12 Houston Dash, No. 13 Chicago Stars, and No. 14 Utah Royals — will be looking for a major midseason reboot, after none managed to register a single win in the last five matchdays.

"We go from here, we break now, recharge, and we will be a very difficult opponent for a lot of teams in the second part of the season. That is our target now," said Angel City head coach Alexander Straus after Friday's loss.

There's still a lot left in 2025 NWSL play, with skidding teams banking on fresh starts while surging squads prepare to hit the ground running as soon as the season picks back up in August.

Australian golfer Minjee Lee came out on top at the 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship, lifting the third major tournament trophy of her career on Sunday.

Entering the final round atop the leaderboard, Lee never relinquished the lead, finishing the tournament a solid three strokes ahead of the competition.

"I definitely was nervous starting the day," the 29-year-old acknowledged following her win. "I looked calm, but not as calm as everybody thinks."

The win earned Lee both an 18-spot rankings boost to world No. 6 and a $1.8 million cut of the event's $12 million prize pool.

Finishing the 2025 KPMG Women's PGA Championship just behind Lee in a second-place tie were 21-year-old Thai pro and new world No. 29 Chanettee Wannasaen and 24-year-old US standout and new No. 49 Auston Kim. Each took home $944,867 thanks to their four-day performances.

Kim, in particular, cobbled together a massive comeback run, chipping away at her nine-stroke deficit entering the competition's final round to claim the best finish of her young career.

"I'm very proud of what I did," the LPGA Tour sophomore said afterwards. "Obviously, the result was really good, but I'm really happy how I handled myself, my emotions, all the adversity. The course is playing really, really tough, but I feel like this week my team and I were very locked in."

Notably, the tournament's top three finishers were the only participants to finish below par, as the field struggled with a punishing week of both Texas heat and windier-than-usual conditions.