The Las Vegas Aces put one step ahead towards the 2025 WNBA Championship with a win at home in Game 1. A’ja Wilson created WNBA Finals history during the win, whereas the Aces bench stepped up for the struggling starters. But for the Mercury HC, Nate Tibbetts and forward Kahleah Copper, the game was decided on one particular play.
During the press conference, Tibbetts and veteran forward spoke about the moment where the Mercury’s offensive play didn’t work as planned and changed the result of the game.
Kahleah Copper, Nate Tibbets Spoke About Game-Changing Moment
The winner of Game 1 always had an advantage in the WNBA Finals series, putting the opponent under pressure for further games. Both the Aces and Mercury went for the early lead in the series at the Michelob ULTRA Arena, where the visitors took a comfortable nine-point lead.
But the fourth quarter was a different story as Nate Tibbetts explained in the press conference. “They went zone. We got up (by) nine, and they went zone. Kind of made us stand a little bit. I thought we had some good looks. Give them credit for mixing up their defence. I thought it was a good adjustment. We didn’t handle it well, and that was part of the reason she didn’t get as many shots in the second half as they going to that zone,” Tibbetts told the media.
#Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts on final shot plan in #wnbafinals Game 1 … ended up with 3-point miss in 3-point loss … wishes he had called another timeout pic.twitter.com/1lT0Dd08Bx
— jeffmetcalfe (@jeffmetcalfe) October 4, 2025
While the Mercury still had a chance to clinch the victory, the definitive moment came when the Aces’ defense moved unexpectedly, for the Mercury players at least. In the final play, Copper was the shooter for the Phoenix side. She called the screen, but Kiah Stokes immediately switched onto Copper, putting Satou Sabally under pressure to shoot the ball – with time running out.
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“It’s a game of runs. I think we did a pretty good job understanding and handling the runs. I think just down the stretch, they made the plays. They made the plays; we didn’t,” Copper reacted to the loss.
While the Aces had a 21-12 run in the final quarter of the game, the Mercury’s inability to break free against Zone defense cost them the game.
Kahleah Copper’s Second-Half Struggles Impacted The Game
Nate Tibbetts gave an emotional tribute to his family amid the Phoenix Mercury’s epic WNBA finals berth. It was really a hard-fought journey for them with the new team and 2024 leading scorer Kahleah Copper. The veteran forward once again showed her offensive flair in the game, scoring a game-high 21 points.
Although that was an impressive feat, what’s alarming was that she scored only two points in the second half, which definitely impacted the game. Still, as mentioned earlier, HC trusted his forward for the final shot of the game.
One good thing about the loss was that the Mercury lost every first game of the series throughout the 2025 postseason and went on to clinch the series. It will be interesting to see if they can achieve a similar success in the finals.