In classic Phoenix Mercury fashion, relatively unknown players stepped up to lead them to a 20-point victory over the Seattle Storm on Saturday afternoon.
Valeriane Ayayi debuted in the WNBA in 2015; she went for career-highs of 18 points and 10 rebounds Saturday in what is now her second season 11 years later. Although a star overseas and two-time Olympic medalist with France, she had never had a performance like that in the W. Meanwhile, rookie Noémie Brochant, also of France, posted her own career-highs of 16
points and 10 assists on 4-for-5 shooting from downtown.
These efforts rose to the occasion in the absence of now more well-known players in Monique Akoa Makani and Jovana Nogić, who were previously in Ayayi and Brochant’s shoes as they shook up the W.
Phoenix’s best player, Alyssa Thomas, had eight points and nine assists in the win. She is one of the fiercest competitors the WNBA has ever seen, but has always shown grace in defeat.
She’s having to do that a lot right now, as the Mercury are 5-12 and in 12th place.
This is an unprecedented level of struggle for an AT team—at any point—and it’s particularly unfamiliar in recent memory.
Thomas missed the playoffs her first three years in the league with the Connecticut Sun, but the lowest winning percentage for one of her teams was .382 in her rookie year of 2014; the 2026 Mercury are currently well below that at .294. She has been on one of the final six teams remaining in each postseason since those first three (nine in a row), including on a semifinal team the past seven in a row.
She still lacks a championship, but AT fans have been fortunate to see her achieve a great deal of team success along with, of course, the individual success. In 12 seasons, she’s been to nine playoffs, seven semifinals and three Finals.
She’s finally faced with some major adversity, and is the leader of the team that everyone is looking to, unlike in those first three seasons in Connecticut.
With her on the roster, you know Phoenix is going to keep fighting. They’re 3.5 games out of a playoff spot with 27 to go. Their fate is far from sealed. And if they get into the playoffs, watch out for Playoff AT and a potential first-round upset. Nobody’s thinking about that right now—but it’s still a possibility.
On Saturday, the Mercury just needed to stop the bleeding, which they did.
It’d also be nice if they could start winning more close games. Only three of their 12 losses have been by over 10 points.
That actually speaks to how good of a team they still are, despite the record.
Thomas is a perennial top-five MVP finisher who automatically gives you a chance to win games. They’ve also still got Kahleah Copper as a second star, though they did lose the third of their Big 3, Satou Sabally, to the New York Liberty this offseason.
Phoenix also features Natasha Mack, who has come into her own and is No. 2 in the W with a field goal percentage of 63. She went from JUCO to Oklahoma State to second-round pick who didn’t do hardly anything as a 2021 rookie, before being out of the league in 2022 and 2023. She made her way into the Mercury’s rotation in 2024 and 2025, but this is her first year being one of the best players on the team. She’s averaging a near-double-double of 9.5 points and 8.4 rebounds to go along with 1.4 blocks.
Akoa Makani is back for her second year in the W and with Phoenix, and is still super efficient from 3 (45.8 percent). Then there’s this year’s rookie revelation in Nogić, who is also a sharpshooter (42 percent from deep with 32 makes).
Thomas’ fiancée, DeWanna Bonner, is the second-oldest player in the league but is still averaging a decent 8.6 points for the team.
Thomas right now is good for 13.8 points, 8.4 assists, 6.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals. She’s the triple-double queen, but has yet to register one this season. She likely would have in the Mercury’s opener, but Phoenix was so far ahead of the defending champion Aces that she sat late and only played 26 minutes, finishing with 20 points, nine helpers and six boards.
Her rebound average is lower than it’s been since her first four years in the league if you don’t count 2021, when she played in just three contests. And in the Mercury’s one really bad loss this year, 34-point trouncing by the Minnesota Lynx, she was nearly completely shut down with just six points, five dimes and three rebounds.
But her current scoring average is the fifth best for her career, and the assist average is her second-highest and leads the league. With the sometimes pedestrian comes the phenomenal. Over her last four outings, she’s averaging just 8.5 points, but 10.5 assists.
If you’re waiting for something Herculean to take place, it’s kind of already happened, at times. It’s just that she’s held up to an impossible standard that she’s set with her previous exploits, and with team struggling, Thomas seems less impactful that usual.
We’ll see if Copper and Bonner can improve their efficiency from the field and from beyond that arc. It’s been as bad as it gets for their careers and the only direction to go is up. If they can cash in more frequently on passes from Thomas, and if Thomas can continue to impose her will on the league like she did in 2023 and 2025, perhaps this AT team, like so many before, can find success.
On Saturday, albeit against a weak Seattle team, they showed shades of the 2025 runner-up team whose unknown players embodied AT’s underdog spirit by always defying the doubters.
