By Noey Kupchan
STATS Writer
The Minnesota Lynx continue to have their way with opponents at home, where they haven't lost since late last season. The injury-plagued Phoenix Mercury seem unlikely to threaten that streak.
The Lynx try for a 14th consecutive home victory and sixth straight win over the Mercury, who have lost four in a row on the road, Wednesday night.
Minnesota (12-1) has bounced back from its lone loss with back-to-back blowouts, following up a 102-70 victory over New York on Thursday with a 79-67 win over Chicago on Saturday.
Lindsay Whalen posted game highs of 25 points and eight assists for the Lynx, who have outscored opponents by an average of 14.7 points in winning 13 straight on their own court.
"We know anybody can step up on this team. When we play as a team really good things happen," Whalen said.
Phoenix (3-8) knows all too well of Minnesota's ability to dominate. The Mercury suffered a two-game sweep at the hands of the Lynx in the conference finals last year and have dropped five straight in this series.
Phoenix, which fell at 105-83 at Minnesota in its season opener May 20 and 78-60 to the Lynx at home June 15, could have a hard time keeping up again in this one. In addition to five-time scoring champion Diana Taurasi's prolonged absence, a left knee contusion could keep second-leading scorer Candice Dupree (15.8 points per game) out for a third consecutive contest.
The Mercury beat Eastern Conference-worst Washington 80-77 last Wednesday despite having eight players in uniform, but they had a rough go of it during a 93-84 loss to Los Angeles on Saturday. Phoenix was outscored 30-8 in the second quarter before picking up the pace a bit in the second half.
"We had a lapse where we got cold," guard Sammy Prahalis, who scored a season-high 22 points, said of the Mercury's second-quarter woes. "That killed us. We dug ourselves into a hole. But when we played hard, and played the way we can, we were right there in the game. ...
"We just want to win. We didn't want to get embarrassed, so we just kept playing hard."
Averaging a team-leading 19.5 points, DeWanna Bonner scored 24 but shot 7 of 21 and 1 for 9 from 3-point range.
While Phoenix is shooting a WNBA-low 27.7 percent from beyond the arc, Minnesota has struggled from the free-throw line. The Lynx have made 71.9 percent of their foul shots - second worst in the league.
"It's on me as a coach," Cheryl Reeve told the team's official website. "I think it's all about how you approach it and probably to this point, I haven't made it important enough ... I have to take the blame for our lack of focus or our lack of understanding of how important it is."
The Mercury have been outscored by an average of 15.7 points during their four-game road skid. They haven't dropped five in a row as the visiting team since a six-game slide June 1-29, 2010.
