CHICAGO — With 1:36 to go in the second quarter of Friday’s Game 3 between the Sky and the Mercury, Chicago wing Kahleah Copper found Diana Taurasi guarding her in the left corner. Copper, whose confidence has never wavered, drove baseline, blowing past the three-time WNBA champion en route to scoring what was at that juncture her 19th and 20th points of the night. Seconds earlier, Taurasi had missed both a three-pointer and layup, her seventh and eighth misses of the first half. It proved to be an especially telling sequence.
No one, not Taurasi, not Skylar Diggins-Smith, not Shey Peddy and not Sophie Cunningham could stop Copper on Friday night.