The Phoenix Mercury will spend their final two games fighting for one of the last two WNBA playoff spots. But they will do so without Skylar Diggins-Smith.

The All-Star guard will miss the team’s two remaining regular-season games due to personal reasons, starting with Friday’s contest against the Dallas Wings, the team announced Thursday afternoon.

For Phoenix’s win Saturday over New York, Diggins-Smith was listed as out with a non-COVID illness. In the team’s loss Wednesday to Minnesota, the All-Star guard was once again absent, this time listed as out for personal reasons.

Two days ago, Diggins-Smith tweeted that the WNBA has to “decide what we want our game to look like” before saying that the league, players and officials all have “very different views on how our game should be played.” Four days before that, she tweeted that she was in “survival mode.” As of Thursday, Diggins-Smith’s Twitter account has been deleted.

Diggins-Smith last played on Aug. 4 against the Sun, contributing a team-high 16 points. The game took place hours after teammate Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony.

After that game, Diggins-Smith said Griner’s imprisonment has taken a toll on the team during a challenging season for the Mercury.

Skylar Diggins-Smith had some powerful words on teammate Brittney Griner.pic.twitter.com/e4ytrxJs9A

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“It’s heavy. It’s just heavy y’all,” 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.

“Now I don’t expect everybody to give a damn, but we really do. We come out here and we’re still supposed to play this game. Nobody even wanted to play today. How are you supposed to approach the game, approach the court with a clear mind, and the whole group is crying before the game because you try to honor her, and you try to come out and still play hard for her.”

Phoenix head coach Vanessa Nygaard said Wednesday that the Mercury found out before the game that Diggins-Smith would be out.

“We have gone through this earlier on Saturday,” the coach said. “We’re just one day at a time moving forward. We’ve seen everything this year, so whatever gets thrown at us, we’re ready to just lace them up and go.

“It’s such an honor and a privilege to play this game and we’re so blessed every day that we get to go out and play in front of our great fans. So whoever we have available is going to come out and battle for our team. We still have fight, and we’re going to be ready to go. That’s what our fans deserve.”

Issues beyond Griner’s detention in Russia have plagued the team this season. In May, Diggins-Smith and Taurasi traded words and had to be separated by teammates while on the bench.

When Taurasi didn’t make the All-Star game, Nygaard praised the selection of Diggins-Smith but suggested the event wasn’t really an All-Star game without Taurasi. In response, Diggins-Smith sent out a tweet with the clip and a clown emoji that was seemingly directed at the coach.

As the trade deadline approached in July, reports emerged that the team was exploring the possibility of a trade involving Diggins-Smith.

Phoenix also agreed to a contract divorce in June with Tina Charles, who later signed with Seattle.

“I’m a strong believer that whatever adversity is thrown at me as a person, as a coach in my development, it’s all for me,” Nygaard said after Wednesday’s loss to Minnesota. “This is something that’s going to help me and make me personally better. I believe that for our team, too. Challenges and things that come to us forces us to try new things.

“I’m extremely proud to have coached this group tonight. That group that’s in the locker room, they are a tough group and they are so resilient. I don’t think anyone can imagine some of the challenges they’ve faced, but they’ve never quit. They’ve never given up.”

No. 3 New York will have one last shot at redemption against the No. 1 Minnesota Lynx on Tuesday, as the reigning champion Liberty look to upend the team they defeated in the 2024 WNBA Finals when the pair meet for the fourth and final time in 2025 regular-season play.

Even without injured leading scorer Napheesa Collier, Minnesota sits 3-0 against their rivals this season, following a truncated scheduling quirk that saw the Lynx and Liberty battle four times in less than three weeks.

"I'm super proud of us," Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said before Tuesday's matchup. "I'm super proud of those that have Phee's back. That makes Phee feel better."

Collier is currently listed as doubtful for Tuesday's powerhouse matchup, with Minnesota vying for top postseason seeding as New York looks to defeat the Lynx in Round 4 — and inch back toward their recently relinquished No. 2 spot on the WNBA table in the process.

New York will hope a few more whistles go their way as they hunt their season's first victory over Minnesota, unlike their Saturday clash in which the Lynx drew 33 free throws en route to an 86-80 win while officials only awarded the Liberty eight.

"It's tough to win a game in this league with eight free throws…. There are so many things out of our control," New York guard Sabrina Ionescu said afterwards, pointing to injured team leader Breanna Stewart. "Like the players we don't have and the free throws we didn't get."

How to watch the Minnesota Lynx vs. New York Liberty on Tuesday

The No. 3 Liberty will host No. 1 Minnesota at 7 PM ET on Tuesday, with live coverage of the game airing on NBA TV.

UConn basketball star and reigning NCAA champion Azzi Fudd added another stop to her whirlwind offseason this week, landing in Chongqing, China, to team up with NBA icon Steph Curry on his Curry Brand World Tour.

Fudd said just last week that she considered Curry her favorite NBA player, with the 22-year-old UConn grad student going on to beat the 16-year league veteran in a three-point contest while in China.

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Kicking off its ninth US edition in San Francisco earlier this month, this year's Curry World Tour brings Curry Camp — a high school basketball clinic where the Golden State Warriors star provides "one-on-one coaching, advice, and exposure to his habits, routines, and mindset" — overseas for the first time.

Fudd's history with Curry runs deeper than her assist at this week's Curry Camp, with the 2025 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player attending one of the two-time NBA MVP's first elite girls basketball camps as a rising high school sophomore in 2018.

She then became the first-ever college player to sign an NIL deal with Under Armour's Curry Brand back in 2021 — just 17 days after Fudd made her collegiate basketball debut.

"Steph has been such an amazing resource," Fudd said back in March. "It kind of just goes to show the kind of person he is."

It's a busy week for some top NWSL teams, as the second edition of the Concacaf W Champions Cup kicks off its 2025/26 group-stage matches on Tuesday night.

Designed to mirror Europe's UEFA Champions League, the Concacaf Champions Cup pits the top clubs from North American leagues in a tournament to determine the continental champion.

This year, a trio of NWSL standouts made the 10-club cut, with last season's top three teams — the Orlando Pride, Washington Spirit, and Gotham FC — in the running for the 2025/26 Concacaf trophy.

Each team will play four group-stage matches over the next two months to determine the four semifinalists who will battle for the trophy in May 2026.

The Champions Cup winners will automatically qualify for the 2026/27 edition of the tournament as well as earn a spot in both the 2027 FIFA Women's Champions Cup and the inaugural FIFA Women's Club World Cup in 2028.

How to watch the NWSL in the Concacaf W Champions Cup

Kicking off this season's Concacaf competition are the 2025 NWSL Challenge Cup champs and 2024 league runners-up Washington Spirit, who will travel south to take on El Salvador's Alianza at 8 PM ET on Tuesday night.

Then on Wednesday, 2024/25 Champions Cup winners Gotham FC will open their title defense by hosting Liga MX Femenil side CF Monterrey at 7 PM ET.

As for reigning NWSL champion Orlando, the Pride will begin their Champions Cup campaign at home next month, facing Costa Rican side Alajuelense at 7 PM ET on September 2nd.

All 2025/26 Concacaf Champions Cup matches will air live on Paramount+.

The No. 13 Chicago Stars earned a dramatic NWSL draw on Monday night, battling back from a three-goal deficit against the No. 6 Seattle Reign — with superstar goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher scoring the stoppage-time equalizer to secure the 3-3 result.

After the entire Seattle frontline of Jess Fishlock, Jordyn Huitema, and Emeri Adames netted early goals, the Stars began chipping away at the Reign's lead, with Chicago forward Ludmila and defender Camryn Biegalski putting their squad within one strike entering second-half stoppage time.

USWNT retiree and Stars captain Naeher then sealed the Chicago comeback with her first-ever NWSL goal, tapping in the ball amid the melee of a last-gasp 99th-minute set piece.

"Chaos kind of sums up our season at this point, the way it finished like that," Naeher said after the match. "You just see the heart in that play."

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Multiple staffing changes and on-pitch inconsistencies have seen the Stars struggle this season, with Chicago tallying just one 2025 win so far.

That said, interim head coach Ella Masar has arguably turned the tide, leading the Stars to five draws in their last six games. Masar will soon resume her assistant coach role once new head coaching hire Martin Sjögren's longtime right hand Anders Jacobson arrives to assume interim manager duties.

"That's the belief in this group, that's the mentality," Naeher continued. "We stuck together all season long."