Rickea Jackson and Griner
Griner ejected as Mercury outlast Sparks 85-81 Brittney Griner and Rickea Jackson were ejected late in the first half Tuesday night and the Phoenix Mercury went on to beat host Los Angeles 85-81.
Griner and Jackson were ejected with 18.8 to go in the half at Phoenix trailing the Sparks for a free throw attempt by Celeste Taylor that made it 43-36.
The fight started when Griner aimed her elbow in the direction of Jackson’s face, and Jackson seated a slap at Griner.
Griner ended with 14 points on 7-of-8 shooting, while Jackson was just 2-of-11 from the field and tallied eight points.
Although they trailed by as many as 15 points, Los Angeles mounted a fourth-quarter comeback.
Arizona _______ responded to its lead slipping away by going on a 19-7 run capped by _________’s 3 (missed? make?) from the top of the circle — as the shot clock was expiring — to make it 82-74 with 1:38 remaining.
Nurse hit a 3-pointer with 14.3 seconds left to make it 84-79.
After Sophie Cunningham hit a free throw with nine seconds left for Phoenix, Stephanie Talbot made a jump shot in the key as time ran out for Los Angeles.
The Mercury (19-20) finish the regular season at home Thursday versus Seattle. That means Phoenix heads to the playoffs as the No. 7 seed.
The Lakers (7-32) fell to 1-13 at home and dropped their eighth in a row overall going into the last road trip of a season filled mostly with ugly blowouts. Los Angeles finishes out the regular season Thursday in Minnesota against the Lynx.
Cunningham added 14 points and Taurasi and Natasha Cloud scored 13 each for the Mercury. Cloud also had 12 assists.
Dearica Hamby had 21 points and nine rebounds to lead the Stars. Li Yueru double-double scoring 10 of her 17 points, while grabbing a team high 10 rebounds in a reserve capacity for the Raiders.
The Sparks led by as many as 10 in the first half and held a 44-36 advantage at intermission.
PHOENIX— Taurasi had 10 points in the quarter with Phoenix outscoring Los Angeles 28–10.
The Clippers shot 4 of 18 in the quarter and committed nine turnovers.
