Diana Taurasi scored 37 as Mercury same streak with Aces

Diana Tauarsi is still dream.

Taurasi was back to his dominant state, scoring a career-high 37 points on Thursday, after limping in Game 1 and the opening rounds of the WNBA playoffs with an ankle injury.

In a wire-to-wire demolition, No. 5 seed Mercury won a 117-91 victory over the No. 2 Las Vegas Aces to tie their WNBA semi-final series at 1-1.

Tauarsi was 10 of 13 from the floor and 9 of 9 from the free throw line. She was lethal from the depths, knocking down eight 3-pointers. She added six rebounds to her stellar line.

Why can’t the elderly dream, indeed. And hey, maybe Aces coach Bill Laimbeer was right.

Brittney Griner also led with 25 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Griner set the tone early with 16 points in the first quarter.

Five Mercury players scored in double digits. Phoenix scored a WNBA playoff record with 68 points in the first half, shooting 76.5 percent and reversing seven points to 3 points. The Mercury is 60.6% finished filming. They passed the Aces 36-23 and had 26 assists.

The final play of the Big 3, Skylar Diggins-Smith had 17 points and five assists.

The Aces spread the score and any other night that would have been enough. But the Mercury scroll saw was too much to overcome.

Sixth player of the year Kelsey Plum led the Aces with 25 points off the bench, including three 3 points. Riquna Williams, who dominated Game 1, added 17 points.

Liz Cambage, returning from a fight with COVID-19 despite her full vaccination, played 25 minutes (compared to 10 in Game 1) and scored 13 points.

Mercury unable to host WNBA semifinals at home

The series moves to Phoenix, but the Mercury home arena is once again booked and unavailable to host WNBA playoff games.

The Footprint Center is home to Disney on Ice, so Sunday’s game three will be at Arizona State’s Desert Financial Arena (3 p.m. ET on ABC). The 14,000-seat arena has previously hosted the WNBA team and is a capacity upgrade from the 7,000-seat GCU Arena first-round location.

For Wednesday’s Game 4, the NBA’s Phoenix Suns are expected to host a pre-season game against the Los Angeles Lakers at 7 p.m. local time. No time is set for the WNBA Semifinals game, and it is not known where it would take place.