Mercury Star's 7-Word Message on Beating Fever, Stephanie White Speaks Volumes
The Phoenix Mercury defeated the Indiana Fever by a score of 85-79 on September 2. This win gave the Mercury a 26-14 record in the 2025 WNBA season and put them in a three-way tie with the Atlanta Dream and the Las Vegas Aces for the WNBA playoffs' No. 2 seed with four regular season games to go.
The Mercury faced the Fever three times this season and won twice. Their first contest against each other came on July 30, which the Fever won by a score of 107-101. The Mercury quickly bounced back by dominating Indiana on August 7, as they produced a 95-60 win. And then the third and final game was their victory on Tuesday night.
These two teams have a lot of close ties. In addition to veteran wing DeWanna Bonner having joined the Mercury after her brief tenure with the Fever went sour earlier this season, star Fever guard Sophie Cunningham (who is out for the season with a torn MCL in her right knee) spent the first six seasons of her WNBA career in Phoenix before getting traded to Indiana this past offseason.
While Fever first-year head coach Stephanie White doesn't have any direct ties to Phoenix, she spent two seasons coaching the Connecticut Sun before coming to Indiana this past offseason. In Connecticut, White coached both Bonner and 2025 WNBA MVP contender Alyssa Thomas, who is also now playing for the Mercury.
Alyssa Thomas Admits Mercury Know 'Everything' Fever Do
Both Thomas and Bonner spoke with the media after Tuesday night's game ended. And at one point, Thomas was asked whether she feels like it's an advantage playing against Stephanie White's schemes, given her time playing for her in Connecticut.
"It's a huge advantage. Like you said, we played, what, two years [under White]? Everything is pretty much the same stuff. Defense, offense," Thomas said, per an X post from Hayden Cilley of ClutchPoints.
"We know everything they're about to do," she added.
Alyssa Thomas told me succinctly how much of an advantage it is playing against Stephanie White’s scheme.
— Hayden Cilley (@HaydenCilley) September 3, 2025
“We know everything they’re about to do.” pic.twitter.com/tBq2TEP41o
While it's not like White was expected to change her entire offensive and defensive schemes just because some of her former players are now on a different team, this sentiment from Thomas is sure to still grab attention around the league (which it already has, as this answer has gone viral on social media).
Then again, every WNBA team should be familiar with every other team's main schemes and strategies at this point.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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