‘We’re not into excuses’: Why the Phoenix Mercury are struggling to find their defensive identity
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">PHOENIX — If the Phoenix Mercury aren’t playing defense, they aren’t playing winning basketball. That’s how the team feels as it’s fallen to 2-4 early in the season. Despite returning seven key players from their 2025 WNBA Finals run, the Mercury haven’t been able to find the defensive identity that made them so dangerous a season ago.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">“We’re nowhere near where we need to be defensively,” star forward <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/wnba/players/t/thomaal01w.html?utm_medium=linker&utm_source=www.theixsports.com&utm_campaign=2026-05-22_bbr" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Alyssa Thomas</a> told reporters following a 98-90 loss to the Toronto Tempo on Tuesday. “It’s going to be a long season if we don’t get it together on the defensive end. I think it shows if you want to play on this team, you have to defend.”</p>
