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Diana Taurasi is Unstoppable in Road Elimination Games

Diana Taurasi pushed her road elimination game record to 6-0 against the New York Liberty this weekend.
Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

WNBA teams, like every basketball team in recorded history, push hard to gain home court advantage in the playoffs. The advantage is just that, but it's a vital edge, for reasons big and small. It just doesn't seem to apply to teams playing Diana Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury, who beat the New York Liberty Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, 101-94. In that case, home court advantage looks a lot more like a fatal handicap.

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Taurasi entered Saturday's game with a 5-0 record in road elimination games. Five times, teams hosted the Phoenix Mercury, which means, record-wise, they were the higher seed and had home fans on their side.

Every time, Taurasi's team prevailed. Now it's 6-0.

"I really don't think there's a formula to it," Taurasi said, standing on the court prior to Saturday night's game. "I think you just come out here and play. When you're on the road, I think that just galvanizes your team a little bit. And I think everybody feels that."

Of course, not everybody feels that. If they did, basketball would reward better regular records with road trips. But you can hear the truth in this answer in Taruasi's voice—she legitimately cannot understand why everybody doesn't thrive in such situations. "I think if you're a competitor, you want to play in games like this," Taurasi said. "The bigger the game, WNBA Finals, Euroleague, Olympics, Final Fours, I feel like those are the moments you make sure you capitalize on, if you want to."

So much of what has made Taurasi one of the elite players in the history of women's basketball is not evident from the statistical body of work she's amassed, though that record is certainly impressive. She's ninth in WNBA history in win shares, twelfth in player efficiency rating. Most conversations about greatest player in league history include her, and should.

What Taurasi does is precisely what her team needs to win in these situations. In 2013, she ended the Los Angeles Sparks with 18 points and ten assists. Wednesday night in Indiana, she scored 20 over the final three periods. In 2007, at Detroit, she did it all—16 points, seven rebounds, six assists and a block.

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Saturday night, she decided on a tactic that worked well for her in Indiana, utilizing the pick and roll early on. This had the twin effects of getting play partner Brittney Griner involved early, something that has typically dovetailed with Griner's better performances this year. It also freed Taurasi for several early threes, which she sank with evident relish, punctuating them each time with some choice words for her defender, Tanisha Wright of the Liberty.

The familiar sound of an unhappy home crowd watching their team's season end sooner than expected had settled into The Garden by the second quarter, as an inspired Griner took over the game, orchestrated by Taurasi.

The Liberty made a run to begin the third quarter, and managed to tie the score at 58. The Mercury, other than a few Griner finishes, were struggling to find good shots. So Taurasi, at precisely the moment her team needed stability, grabbed a long rebound, curled around the three-point arc and drained one from about three feet beyond the line. Later, at the eight-minute mark, DeWanna Bonner gathered the ball off a broken possession and found Taurasi at the top of the key. She calmly sank another three to give Phoenix a 74-71 lead.

Again, New York tied it. Two possessions later, Taurasi gathered a defensive rebound, drove the length of the court, sank the layup and drew the foul. The Phoenix lead grew to 79-74. And with less than two minutes to go, Phoenix ahead 90-86, Taurasi saw a chance to step on their throats. She stepped behind a Griner screen, nailed a three, and skipped back toward her team's huddle, knowing the Liberty would call timeout and the game was over.

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"And that's why I say she's the best player in the world," Mercury coach Sandy Brondello said at her post game presser. "She's such an unselfish player, but her determination to win in those big moments, it supersedes anyone else I've ever seen, and I've been in this game a long time."

Before it was over, Taurasi sank two free throws, another two, then two more, to finish with 30 points.

Fans filed out in droves, heads down, slow walk up the aisles courtesy of Diana Taurasi. For her part, Taurasi took it in, signing autographs, taking selfies, and liberally giving out hugs as she moved slowly across The Garden floor toward the locker room. "They really are great fans," Taurasi said. "Because they'll throw shit at you, they'll boo you, but at the end of the day, they love basketball. And at the end, as I was walking out, rapping people, taking pictures, they just love basketball. It's really special."

A giddy Taurasi sat at her locker, constantly moving as she kept her rapid-fire commentary going, dissecting her greatest elimination performance yet.

"You know those moments don't only come in the final two minutes," Taurasi said. "They come middle of the third, middle of the fourth, critical possessions that give you the confidence to pull through. And today we had a lot of those."