Phoenix Mercury’s late-season additions lend hands for playoff push

With Cloud serving a one-game suspension Tuesday night after receiving her seventh technical foul in Sunday’s loss to the Las Vegas Aces, Taylor made the first start of her career and played a career-high 33 minutes. Head coach Nate Tibbetts tasked her with guarding Dream guard Rhyne Howard from the tip. 

Only three of Howard’s 12 first-half points came with Taylor as the primary defender. In the second half, several other players rotated onto Howard while Taylor split time guarding her and Atlanta guard Jordin Canada. Ultimately, only eight of Howard’s 31 points came against Taylor.

“She’s a tough kid,” Tibbetts told media about Taylor postgame Tuesday. “She competes. She hasn’t been here very long, but she’s not afraid of anything. She’s guarding two of the better wings in our league and making it tough on them. And so I thought you can put her on the floor right now because of her defense.”

The Mercury as a whole have struggled post-break. They are 4-5 and briefly dipped below .500 before getting back to even with Tuesday’s win. Although Billings and Taylor have been a part of the ups and downs, their contributions during the latter part of the season are important for contextualizing how the Mercury shape up to close out the season and go into the playoffs.

Taylor is in her second stint with the Mercury this season. She signed her first seven-day contract with the team back on July 12 before the All-Star break. She averaged 15.8 minutes in the four-game stretch and held the team’s best defensive rating throughout her contract.

After her first seven-day expired, Taylor signed with the Connecticut Sun on a seven-day before returning to the Valley on August 23. Since her return, she’s averaged 16.7 minutes and earned the team’s highest net rating and plus/minus at +25.

“She’s a big guard. She understands defensive schemes,” Cloud told reporters upon Taylor’s return in August. “She gets into people. She’s a great offensive player. She can push our pace. She can facilitate the ball, and she’s starting to find her scoring here with us as we’re trying to build confidence into her. I see a lot of myself in Celeste as a young player, hanging our hats on the defensive end but allowing our offense to kind of develop as we develop through the league.”

Taylor’s brief absence was directly related to the signing of Billings, who’s also been a key player for the Mercury post-Olympic break. Billings signed with Phoenix on August 18, filling a hole the Mercury desperately needed plugged at the power forward position.

In addition to bringing a spark on the defensive end, Billings also adds tenacity in the paint when it comes to rebounding. Since joining Phoenix, she’s added 4.1 rebounds per game to the Mercury’s total, including an average of 1.6 on the offensive end. 

“Obviously, defensive rebounding is a big thing. There’s certain nights, transition defense is another,” Tibbetts told media pregame on August 18 before Billings’ Mercury debut. “With us signing Monique Billings, that’s a big reason why we were excited to get her. From her energy, athletic standpoint, her rebounding ability, those are the main things defensively, and we think that she can help us in those areas.”

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Just by being in Phoenix and playing her natural position, Billings takes defensive pressure off players like Cloud and guard Sophie Cunningham who’ve spent time guarding opposing post players throughout this season. This allows them to guard at their natural position and create more favorable matchups for the Mercury.

“Besides me, the other person that’s probably just as excited that [Billings is] here is Tash Cloud. [Cloud] doesn’t have to start on those fours and fives to start the game [anymore]. … Defensively, [Billings] just gives us another option at that end, with her physicality and her movement. She can get up and pressure and fight through screens, so we’ve really liked what she’s done at the defensive end.”

Billings already signed a rest-of-season contract with Phoenix on August 25. Taylor signed her third seven-day with the team on August 30. If Phoenix wants to keep her around after it expires on Thursday, it’ll have to be for the remainder of the year.

Either way, it’s been all hands on deck to get the Mercury back to the playoffs after finishing at the bottom of the standings in 2023, and Billings and Taylor both played significant roles in helping secure the Mercury’s postseason opportunity.

“The thing is, it’s kind of a new group. I think we only maybe have three players from last year, new staff,” Tibbets said. “It definitely was a goal of ours to get to the playoffs from I think they had the least amount of wins in the league a year ago, but this is a group that’s greedy. I don’t think any of us are happy where we’re at, but we’ve also dealt with a bunch of adversity, and so we’re definitely happy, but we’re not satisfied. We know we’ve got to do work in the playoffs.”

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