2010 phoenix mercury playoff media guide - WNBA.com

MERCURY PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
2010 PHOENIX MERCURY POSTSEASON MEDIA GUIDE
48
2010 REGULAR SEASON
Rewarded for winning seven of nine games from July 3 – August 1 a Mercury player won three of four Player of the Week awards
including two consecutive from DIANA TAURSI on July 26 and August 2. CANDICE DUPREE started it off with her third career
weekly honor on July 12. Overall, the Mercury collected four Player of the Week honors in 2010 and 25 in franchise history (19 since
2006).
DUPREE = PLAYER OF THE WEEK
On July 12 CANDICE DUPREE earned her third career Player of the Week honor and the first as a member of the Western Conference.
Dupree twice won the award as a member of the Chicago Sky. Her first such honor as a member of the Mercury was awarded
for her performance in a 98-89 win at Los Angeles in which she scored a then-season-high 25 points and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds,
her fourth double-double of the season and 32 nd of her career. The league‘s leader in field goal percentage went 11-for-17
(.647) from the field and a perfect 3-for-3 from the free throw line.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK X3
Reigning WNBA MVP DIANA TAURASI was named the Western Conference Player of the Week three times in 2010, including two
consecutive weeks on July 26 and August 2. She has won the award 13 times in her career, the fourth most by a single player in
WNBA history.
TAN’S TENURE
In her 13 th WNBA season, TANGELA SMITH became the WNBA‘s all-time leader in career games played surpassing Vickie Johnson
on August 13 with her 411 th game. Smith was originally selected with the 12 th overall pick (second round) of the 1998 WNBA Draft by
the Sacramento Monarchs and was later acquired by the Mercury on April 4, 2007 as part of a draft-day blockbuster trade. From 2005-
06, Smith played for the Charlotte Sting.
Tan‘s longevity has placed her near the tops of several WNBA all-time statistical categories. Among those, on June 1 at Minnesota,
Tan became just the fourth player in league history to record 4,500 points and 2,000 rebounds in a career and on July 3 she surpassed
Sheryl Swoopes for fifth all-time on the WNBA career scoring list and surpassed Margo Dydek for sixth all-time on the WNBA career
rebounds list.
GAMES PLAYED
1 Tanglea Smith 415
2 Vickie Johnson* 410
3 Ticha Penicheiro 401
4 Tina Thompson 399
5 Katie Smith 380
MINUTES
1 Tina Thompson 13,711
2 Katie Smith 13,048
3 Vickie Johnson* 12,435
4 Tangela Smith 11,874
5 Ticha Penicheiro 11,748
ALL-STAR SEASON?
REBOUNDS
1 Lisa Leslie* 3,307
2 Taj McWilliams 2,631
3 Tina Thompson 2,616
4 Yolanda Griffith* 2,444
5 Lauren Jackson 2,333
6 Tangela Smith 2,216
POINTS
1 Tina Thompson 6,413
2 Lisa Leslie* 6,263
3 Katie Smith 5,760
4 Lauren Jackson 5,757
5 Tangela Smith 4,773
6 Sheryl Swoopes* 4,604
The WNBA held its All-Star weekend festivities on July 9-11 but a noticeable piece missing on the WNBA squad was Mercury guard
TEMEKA JOHNSON who certainly made a respectable case for being a part of the weekend exhibition. Johnson averaged 9.2 points
and 4.7 assists per game in her second season with the Mercury. Ranked T-EIGHTH in the league in assists per game, Meek dished
out at least five assists in FIFTEEN games and recorded double-digit assists on THREE occasions, including a career-high 12 vs.
Atlanta on June 29. Johnson had THREE double-doubles on the year, one more than her previous five years combined.