Satou Sabally dug deep to push Mercury to Game 3 vs. Liberty

Satou Sabally rushed from the artifact to the helping arsenic her Phoenix Mercury teammate Kahleah Copper drove by connected her mode to the basket. It was the archetypal infinitesimal of Game 1 successful the archetypal circular of the WNBA playoffs betwixt the Mercury and the New York Liberty. Copper drew some defenders, which near Sabally wide unfastened connected the wing. Copper turned, jumped and tossed the shot backmost to her teammate.

Sabally caught the walk arsenic she slipped her orangish shoes beyond the arc of the 3-point enactment astatine PHX Arena. She lined up the shot, her archetypal of the game. Sabally flicked her near wrist toward the handbasket and sent the shot toward the hoop.

It clanged disconnected the backmost of the rim.

A fewer minutes later, she fto her 2nd shot, different 3-pointer, fly. Miss. In a span of 1 infinitesimal and 50 seconds to adjacent the archetypal half, Sabally had a 3-pointer blocked, missed a layup, had a layup blocked and missed a 3-pointer. Halftime didn't help. Sabally missed each 9 of her shots crossed the 2nd fractional and overtime. She finished 2-for-17 from the tract and 1-for-10 from beyond the arc successful her archetypal postseason crippled arsenic a subordinate of the Mercury.

Fourth-seeded Phoenix mislaid to New York 76-69 connected their location court. It was Sabally's worst shooting show since she joined the Mercury from the Dallas Wings successful an offseason trade.

Two days and 2,500 miles later, Sabally caught the shot aft crossing fractional court. Her orangish shoes clashed against the seafoam greenish borderline of the Liberty logo astatine Barclays Center. The Mercury led by 2 successful the 2nd 4th of Game 2. Sabally dribbled toward the apical of the key. Breanna Stewart backed up and near Sabally with a small excessively overmuch space. Sabally acceptable her feet and launched a heavy 3-point changeable implicit the tips of Stewart's outstretched fingers. Sabally celebrated arsenic the shot swished done the net.

In Game 2, Sabally changeable 5-for-11 from the tract and 2-for-4 from 3-point scope for 15 points successful the Mercury's 86-60 rout of the defending champions connected Wednesday. She besides had 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals.

"Whenever [I] fail, I'm truly bully astatine looking astatine it objectively and learning from that," Sabally said astatine signifier anterior to the game.

For astir a decennary now, the connection "unicorn" has recovered its mode into sentences -- written oregon spoken -- astir Sabally's game. Her 6-foot-4 framework combined with her ballhandling and quickness marque her a carnal outlier adjacent among the top players successful the world. But successful Game 2, Sabally showcased her elite intelligence strength. The Mercury are hoping she tin unleash her carnal and intelligence prowess for the decisive Game 3 connected Friday nighttime (9 ET, ESPN2) successful Phoenix. The victor advances to a semifinal showdown against top-seeded Minnesota starting Sunday successful Minneapolis.

After the overtime nonaccomplishment astatine home, Sabally watched movie and analyzed her performance. She replayed each shot. Some, she noted, were last-second prayers with the changeable timepiece winding down. A fewer were flat-out forced. "But a batch of them were great," she said.

When Sabally was a rookie successful Dallas, then-coach Brian Agler gave her a transcript of "Ego Is the Enemy" by Ryan Holiday. She besides work "Mind of the Athlete" by Jarrod Spencer. The books person helped her bid her encephalon to header with the inevitable clunkers that travel her way.

"It's truly important to conscionable enactment composed successful these moments and enactment connected that," Sabally said. "It's arsenic important arsenic moving connected your shot."

Sabally spent her clip up of Game 2 visualizing the shot falling done the hoop alternatively than bouncing disconnected the robust oregon swirling retired of the rim. "That's however I bid my caput to deliberation positively," Sabally said.

Sabally has been challenged before. During her rookie season, she changeable 19.7% from 3-point scope aft shooti...