Tyler Killian

azcentral sports

Note to Mercury opponents from here on out: Don't let Diana Taurasi get the ball with the game on the line, and don't test Brittney Griner in clutch moments.

Taurasi hit a jumper with 2.9 seconds remaining and Griner blocked Lindsay Whalen's layup attempt at the buzzer, giving the Mercury an 82-80 victory Saturday over the Minnesota Lynx in front of a rocking US Airways Center crowd of 12,379.

"That's playoff basketball," Mercury coach Sandy Brondello said. "Just a great standard, really. Two of the best teams in the WNBA, and that showed."

Taurasi finished with 24 points, and Griner had 19 points and 11 rebounds. Maya Moore led all scorers with 30 points for the Lynx.

With 7.7 seconds left and the game tied at 80, Taurasi received an inbounds pass from Penny Taylor. She drove to her left and pulled up a few feet inside the 3-point line, draining the shot and sending the crowd into a fervor.

A day after signing a multiyear contract extension to remain with the Mercury, Taurasi proved deserving of every cent.

"Hell, yeah, she's worth that contract," Griner said. "She better have signed it, because I was going to terrorize her until she did. She ain't going nowhere.

"Just seeing the play unfold, I knew we were going to get her the ball, and I knew she was going to make the shot. And that's exactly what happened." She came down, got a good screen, and when it went up, that was sweet. That was butter. She keeps making shots like that, she can't retire until I retire."

Griner provided her own heroics after a Lynx timeout. Moore threw in to Whalen, who drove the baseline and attempted a reverse layup just before the horn.

Griner easily swatted it away to preserve the victory.

"BG, she's obviously created history in that regard," Brondello said, referring to Griner breaking the WNBA record for blocks in a season during Thursday's win over the San Antonio Stars. "That's what she does well. She came up with a big play."

The Lynx (24-7) started fast against the Mercury (26-4), getting 13 points from Moore in the first quarter en route to a 28-20 lead.

The Mercury managed a comeback in the second, heading into halftime up 43-42, and things stayed close over an intense final 20 minutes.

The win was huge for Phoenix (26-4), which now leads Minnesota (24-7) by 2 1/2 games in the Western Conference standings. With four games remaining, the Mercury need just one more victory (or one Lynx loss) to secure the WNBA's top overall seed and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

"This win was big. This win was everything," Griner said. "We went through all the scenarios if we did fall short today, but forget that. Get the win. That's what we had our mind set out to do. And we got it."​