Kristi Toliver delivers Mystics wild win over Mercury

The Phoenix Mercury were gaining, point by point.

Leilani Mitchell and company hit 3-pointer after 3-pointer as the minutes ticked down, while the Washington Mystics put up one or two at a time. Finally, Kristi Toliver changed that.

Toliver’s clutch, 25-foot trey with 1:05 left supplied the dagger, and the Mystics held on for a 99-93 win over the Mercury Tuesday at the Entertainment and Sports Arena.

Elena Delle Donne scored a season-high 33 points, 15 of them in a six-minute span to start the third quarter, plus six rebounds and three blocks. Toliver finished with 25 points.

But Mercury center Brittney Griner scored 30 points on 14-for-18 shooting and added a game-high nine rebounds. Mitchell finished with 28 points, 12 of them coming in the fourth quarter on 4-for-4 3-point shooting that powered Phoenix’s comeback. The Mystics led by as many as 23.

“Well, for people who like offense, they got to see a lot of it,” Mystics coach Mike Thibault said, pondering his stat sheet with a frown. “Wow. I mean, they shot lights out, to their credit.”

But Thibault was unhappy with how Washington covered Mitchell in the game’s crucial moments.

“Leilani Mitchell gets hot, and then we made some mistakes on Leilani Mitchell,” he said. “We got caught on screens twice. We helped off her one time when we weren’t supposed to help. Why we would’ve done that after she had made three in a row, I’m not sure.”

Mistakes and all, it still counts in the win column for Washington (13-6), which entered the game a half-game out of first place in the WNBA, held by the Connecticut Sun and Las Vegas Aces in a tie. The Sun won their game Tuesday to maintain their narrow lead.

With the Mystics only up 93-90 and 1:33 to go, Toliver started to drive down the right side of the lane, briefly lost a handle on the ball and sank the layup off-balance. The Mercury answered with Mitchell hitting her fourth 3-pointer of the quarter, but Toliver ran back and drained her own.

“Our two stars made huge shots,” Thibault said. “Kristi made huge shots. Elena made huge shots. And then we got hustle plays.”

Thibault then praised Aerial Powers, who came off the bench and played 25 minutes at the three position for Washington after Ariel Atkins started the night cold. Powers went 5-for-8 for 13 points and led the Mystics with eight boards.

“She was huge for us in so many ways,” Delle Donne said of Powers. “Offensively she was attacking, but I felt like her rebounds were so important.”

Natasha Cloud said the Mystics should have done better taking Mitchell out of the game, but was happy she and her teammates “just locked in” to secure the win.

“(Everyone) took their assignments seriously in the last two-and-a-half, three minutes, and realized we just need two or three stops,” Cloud said.

Delle Donne again wore a face mask for the game after breaking her nose earlier this month. Perhaps superstitiously, she’s thinking of keeping it long-term — “it’s been good to me,” she said — but her nose is mostly healed.

“Just hanging around, it feels good. I feel like if it got hit, it wouldn’t feel great,” she said.