GAME HIGHLIGHTS

• With the win, Seattle clinched its 3^rd trip to the WNBA Finals in franchise history (2004, 2010).
• The Storm won its 1^st series since 2010, when the team swept Atlanta (3-0) en route to sealing its 2^nd WNBA championship.
• Seattle set franchise records for points in a playoff game (94) and quarter (35), outscoring Phoenix 35-21 in the 4^th stanza.  Sue Bird collected 14 of her 22 points in the frame.

KEY STATS OF THE GAME

• Breanna Stewart scored 20+ points for the 4^th time in the series. Her 28 points equaled her Game 1 total. Only Lauren Jackson’s 31 points in 2004 topped those efforts.
• Sami Whitcomb entered the game with Storm trailing 57-49 at the 4:39 mark of the 3^rd quarter.  She stayed in for the rest of the game, getting a playoff career-high 11 points and 4 assists in the span.
• All three Storm playoff games vs. Phoenix at KeyArena finished with a combined point total of 178 points (91-87 in Game 1, 91-87 (OT) in Game 2, 94-84 in Game 5).

STORM PLAYER NOTES & TEAM HIGHLIGHTS

WNBA MVP BREANNA STEWART

• Breanna Stewart played all 40 minutes and finished with 28 points, marking her fourth 20-plus point effort of the 2018 WNBA Playoffs.
• Breanna Stewart’s 11 field goals equaled the franchise playoff record (Betty Lennox, 10/10/04 vs. CON).
• Breanna Stewart averaged 24 points in the series.

SUE BIRD

• Sue Bird’s 22 points was one shy of her playoff career-high (23, at LAS, 9/19/08). She shot 8-for-18 from the field and also had 5 assists.
• Sue Bird scored 14 points in the 4^th quarter on 5-for-6 shooting and 4-for-5 from three-point range.
• Sue Bird, playing with a face mask to protect a broken nose, is now 6-5 all-time in WNBA Playoffs in a face mask, 20-15 overall.

ALYSHA CLARK

• Alysha Clark set a career playoff best for rebounds (13) and notched her 1^st playoff double-double, soring 13 points on 4-for-9 shooting.

SAMI WHITCOMB

• Sami Whitcomb scored a playoff career-high 11 points in 21 minutes off the bench. She shot 4-for-9 from the field, including 2-for-3 from deep.
• Sami Whitcomb’s 4 assists marked a playoff career-high.

STORM TEAM NOTES

• The Storm outrebounded the Mercury, 40-29, marking the largest rebounding margin for Seattle in the postseason. This was the second time Seattle outrebounded Phoenix in the series. This advantage turned into an 18-6 edge in second-chance points for Seattle.
• Seattle held Phoenix without a field goal between 4:57 and 0:42.2 marks of the fourth quarter, turning a 75-74 deficit into an 89-80 lead.
• After going 3-for-13 from deep in the first half, the Storm went 8-for-12 in the final 20 minutes.
• Seattle improved to 6-2 in series that are at least 5 games (3-0 in 2010, 2-1 in 2018).
• Including the preseason, tonight marked the 10^th meeting between the two teams in 2018. Seattle went 7-3 vs. the Western Conference foe.

MERCURY TEAM NOTES

• All five Mercury starters scored in double figures, led by Brittney Griner’s 21 points on 8-for-12 shooting.
• Yvonne Turner’s 19 points equaled her playoff career-high for points, which she achieved in Game 3 on Aug. 31 in the desert.
• Diana Taurasi scored 17 points on 7-for-15 shooting.
• With 14 points, DeWanna Bonner scored below 20 for the first time in the postseason. She also had 8 rebounds and 3 assists.
• Brittney Griner played a full 40 minutes for the 2^nd straight game, finishing with a playoff career-high 6 assists.
• Diana Taurasi fell to 13-1 in winner-take-all games.
• Briann January chipped in 11 points and had 5 assists, her 4^th time posting at least 5 assists in the postseason.
• Tonight marked the Mercury’s 1^st Game 5 loss in franchise history (2-1).
• The Mercury lost their 1^st game of the season when leading at the half (20-1).

NEXT GAME: Seattle will play Washington in the 2018 WNBA Finals. Game 1 at KeyArena is set for Friday, Sept. 7 at 6 p.m. PDT.

HEAD COACH DAN HUGHES 

(Opening statement) “I thought it was a great series and I thought Phoenix was just amazing. That was some of the best basketball I have seen in the WNBA in a lot of years. I thought it taught us a lot about what it really takes when you have that level of team play, and that level of individual play. You have to take your hat off to the heart we had down the second stretch, all we knew was fourth quarter separation. We really dug in. Watching Sue Bird have that presence in that moment. I played Breanna Stewart 40 minutes for the first time. You get a player like Sami Whitcomb who trains like no other and was ready for a big moment. We had to dig to get a lot of things. That was what you have to do to advance, and advance we will.”

(On second year with the team) “I am a faith guy. I think that God opened this opportunity for me. This wasn’t something I sought out, I think that I am supposed to be here. I want to recognize His presence in my life. I have been through all the stages of teams, mostly I have been a builder in my career, but coming here and having a feeling that they were on the verge of being the team that we are becoming. That was really a shot in the arm for a veteran coach.”

(On Sue Bird’s fourth quarter play) “I will always have the memory of that mask being on. She took a hit in game four, but when I saw her today she was in the moment, just slid on her mask like it was no big deal. I know that she has been through it a few times, but her presence in that moment, there were no finer moments. I think that Jordin Canada did some really good things to get it started and then Sue [Bird] came in, in the fourth quarter and was just Sue Bird. That is why she is who she is. Not only does she carry herself and compete in a certain way, she is ready for big moments.”

(On x-factor players) “It is a big part of the story. This team has done a great job of working to stay ready. If you would have seen Sami Whitcomb’s workouts, or if you would have watched Jordin Canada work up until today, as a coach there are certain times when you know that it is going to pay a dividend. There are a type of people who understand that they want to be better and I want to stay ready, and we are going to need that in the finals. It was really pleasing. If you saw Sami Whitcomb work you would understand how joyous it was that she grabbed that moment. The thing that made me so confident was that I walked down the bench and I said to Jewell Loyd ‘you stay ready’ and she said ‘no Sami [Whitcomb] is going, you let her go coach.’ She was all about the team. That was the moment that I knew that we were going to find success. When the totality of what you’re doing is greater than your own place.”

(On the KeyArena crowd) “I thought it was unlike any moment I have had in terms of a building in harmony with a team. Even when we were down, you could have sworn that we were rolling. I was looking at the crowd and I was watching how they didn’t just engage when the Storm was doing well, they engaged the moments when they wanted us to do well. It was loud and there is no doubt that that is a motivating factor. I just said to the team this morning, we started this journey April 29th, and now we have a chance at Key Arena, in front of our fans, to win one game and go to the finals, they are a part of what we are doing and they are a part of this team.”

(On Breanna Stewart’s play) “I took a time out to let her rest. I didn’t go into the game thinking that she was going to play 40, but when I got into the game, I thought that throughout the different pairings that we were going to have, I thought we needed a piece of consistency. She did things on the defensive ends that were just consistent. She was always there, that is an MVP, truly an MVP. We leaned on her and she delivered, and she delivered big. The thing that we did well, was we went and got balls, we won the loose balls whether they were in the air or on the ground, and that is with Breanna Stewart playing 40 minutes.”

STORM GUARD SUE BIRD 

(On playing with the broken nose again) “The one good thing about having lived through this before is you just know how to deal with it. The mask is super annoying and nobody wants to wear it. I’ve worn it before so I put it on and to be honest, I didn’t really notice it that much. You just play and not think about it and I was able to do that probably because of the experience of breaking my nose before. I’m sure you saw me upset when they knocked my mask off (in the fourth quarter) because that hit down on to my nose and it started bleeding. Otherwise, it’s fine. No biggie.”

(On what opened up in the fourth quarter and where it ranks for her individually) “I don’t even know, to be honest, what happened. These weren’t set plays run for me to get open. As the game went on, I got some of the same looks early, but I just didn’t make them. Honestly (Breanna Stewart) is the one somewhere late in the third or early fourth quarter said, ‘Hey, you need to use your legs.’ I was like, ‘Oh yeah, good point.’ A lot of the shots I’d been taking in that third quarter I was really short. When I had the openings, I just tried to think about that and shoot it the same way. That’s something that you learn over time. You can’t let missed shots affect your next one. It’s a lot easier said than done. I’m happy that Stewie reminded me of that and like I said, I was just open. It was mostly off of them having to focus on Stewie so much because she was being so aggressive. Other players were kind of getting in there creating these openings and a lot of it was just kickouts to me and I was able to just knock them in. As far as stretches go, I mean, this is up there. I don’t know that I’ve had a fourth quarter like this in as big of a game in my life, to be honest.”

(On the play of Sami Whitcomb) “UW! Sami was huge. I think there was an energy that we were lacking and the minute she got in the game, not just in the second half, but in the first half as well. Hit a three, she gets hustle plays … the thing about Sami, she’s the most annoying player to practice against. I’m not kidding, top three in my career because she just never stops. She’s the leading scorer in practice by far for the season, without question. She never stops, it’s constant movement, she’s a gnat on defense. I thought she did a great job defensively as well. We really needed that. Listen, this series has been a grind I think for both teams … and then you just inject Sami and she’s like the Tasmanian devil out there. We needed that. It really raised all of our energy levels. On top of that, she hit some shots, got some big loose balls and really was huge for us. It takes players like that – that’s what makes championship teams.”

(On if the jump ball with DeWanna Bonner was the play of the game) “That’s probably it. I don’t remember exactly the time or the score, but I know on the inside I was like, ‘That was big.’ We got to use the clock more. It was huge. It was big time.”

(On what it means to get back to the WNBA Finals for a third time) “It means a lot. I think your first time around, probably what she’s (Breanna Stewart) thinking right now … actually this is advice (to Stewart). It’s your third year, it was my third year. You think this is great. You’re like I’m probably going to be here every year. And then I didn’t get back for six years. And then six years later, I needed to capitalize on this opportunity. And we did. Here we are eight years later. I didn’t think we’d be back, to be honest. We started a rebuild and there was no telling when we’d get on the other side of it. It’s not that my hunger for it went away or my motivation. Clearly I wanted to stay at the top of my game and wanted to help this franchise get on the other side of this rebuild, but the Finals? That was very far from my imagination so to be here now, in some ways, is probably sweeter than the other two. Just because I didn’t think it was going to happen, but here we are.”

(On the WNBA playoff format) “The playoff format, I don’t know that I love it overall. I think it does have exciting elements with the single elimination. I don’t think it’s fair for the third and fourth seeds to have to play a single elimination. That’s a lot of pressure. And people think home court means something. In that, it probably adds pressure because you’re supposed to win this one game. And the travel, Phoenix knows better than anybody. They’ve had to do it three years in a row now where they’ve kind of broken the mold on the team that goes all the way through. For them, I’m sure it’s exhausting. It makes the one and the two seed so much more important so yeah, there is that emphasis in the regular season. Overall, is it fair? I don’t know. It is what it is and here we are.”

(On if there was a point in the fourth quarter when they could exhale) “No! I looked up and we were up nine maybe under a minute and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, if they hit a three, it’s a six-point game! Or if they hit a three, it’s a four-point game!’ That’s what we learned in the first couple of games – they’re never out of it when they have Diana (Taurasi). That probably helped us win this game, to be honest, that experience.”

STORM FORWARD BREANNA STEWART 

(On if she’ll remember this game for a long time) “Yeah, for sure. When you look at everything as a whole, this whole series, and then the fourth quarter stretch that we had, obviously we’re going to remember it. Like Sue (Bird) said, I was trying to be aggressive and then she came up and kind of just finished it up. She was knocking down tough shots. Everybody was just doing what we needed them to. (Alysha Clark) was getting rebounds, Sami (Whitcomb) was all over the place. And I think we knew the whole game, we might’ve been down, but we still felt like you know, we’re going to win this. Eventually the tides are going to turn and we’re going to win this game.”

(On the WNBA playoff format) “We were really conscientious of it as the regular season was finishing. We knew that we wanted to finish in the top two and we wanted that top seed because we knew that home court advantage was going to be so huge, especially with this condensed season. There are games every other day almost and the travel doesn’t make things easy. Of course we wanted to have home court advantage, sleep in our beds, that type of thing.”

MERCURY HEAD COACH SANDY BRONDELLO 

(On the game) “Obviously we are disappointed. We were right there at the end of the third and Seattle just came out in the fourth quarter and were better than us, that’s what it came down to. Sue [Bird] was fantastic, you know she made what 4-of-5 from three, you know Stewie [Breanna Stewart], they just put the ball in those two’s hands and they just did a great job. It’s been a great series and its sad that we can’t move on but you know that’s basketball. Tonight, you know we always say ‘may the best team win’ and Seattle was the best team in that last quarter.”

(On if there were any breakdowns by Phoenix in the fourth quarter) “Well, we were taking the ball out of the basket most of the time. They were making shots and we went under screens, and you can’t go under screens on Sue Bird at times. Then when they did miss a shot, they usually came up with the offensive rebound. They probably had a little more energy and went and fought a little harder and had a little bit of luck, the ball came up and they got the success out of that. They did a good job on Brittney [Griner], they had three people around her every time we got caught and we had a lot of open looks. The difference between us is that Seattle made those looks and we did not. That’s the ball game, sometimes it’s just about makes and misses.”

(On the competitiveness of the series) “I think it was a fantastic series. It’s great for the WNBA and I think we faced a lot of adversity so I’m really proud of my team. Losing Sancho [Lyttle] was a big loss for us but we just continued to fight. It’s great to see DeWanna Bonner back playing fantastic. This girl here [Diana Taurasi], is pretty special but she’s played probably her best in her career, an amazing level of play. But look, Seattle is a very good team. They’re the number one team in the league and they proved that tonight. They’ve got Sue Bird who I think is one of the all-time greats here and just her experience along with Stewie [Breanna Stewart] playing big. They just played hard. It’s just unfortunate that only one team can move forward because it was a great series but there’s things that we can learn from and build on for next year.

(On what Phoenix learned about itself during the series) “I learned that we fight. I mean we were down 2-0 and we had games here in Seattle that came down to the last possession and we know how important it is to focus until you finish the play, but it shows a lot of character of this team led by Diana [Taurasi], DeWanna Bonner and Brittney [Griner], they just didn’t want to go home. We went back and protected our house and we gave everything tonight. It comes down to a little bit of luck and whoever’s going to make the big shots at the right time and they did that tonight. Great series, I know that we can compete. I think Briann [January] was great for us but we probably just need a little more depth. We finished fifth so we had to play two extra games, we didn’t get a whole week’s rest and I think tonight maybe that would haveshowed. What we learned for next year is that we’ve got to keep everyone healthy and have to get a top four seed.”

MERCURY GUARD DIANA TAURASI

(On Sue Bird’s fourth quarter) “Sue’s always one of those people that when a team needs a shot, an assist, a play, she’s always willing to make that play and willing to be in that situation. I’ve seen her do that so many times, whether it was in Russia, in college, that’s nothing new, that’s just a credit to her and a credit to all of her hard work. She plays with a lot of confidence and she gives that to her team. It’s probably one of the best little stints of basketball that I’ve seen her play, but that’s what she can do. She could probably do that more often but you know she’s the consummate point guard, she always wants to get everyone else involved. That’s routine Sue to me, but it was a pretty incredible performance by her.

(On the competitiveness of the series) “I think it was just a series where they felt like they could win every game, we felt like we could win every game and we were just so evenly matched in so many ways. Like I said, Game 5 always comes down to a couple of possessions here and there. I thought throughout the game, those possessions were ours and we were doing the things that needed to be done to win these games. It just slipped away for us in that last probably six or seven minutes. I don’t know if we just ran out of gas and then Seattle just took it to a different level and we didn’t match that on both ends.”

(On the crowd at KeyArena) “It’s one of the best places to play basketball here in Seattle. You think about some of those basketball places where you’re going to walk into the arena, it’s going to be rowdy and if they make a shot, they’re going to blow the roof off this place and tonight was no different. You could feel that the crowd was on edge, they were ready, it’s just a great place for basketball. I’ve been coming here since 2004 now and whether it’s a first place Seattle team or a team that struggled, I think that’s the one thing, this fan base is so loyal. They respect their team, no matter what’s going on or how the season is going and that shows a lot.”