Silver Stars 88, Mercury 80

Without Brittney Griner to protect the middle, San Antonio took advantage.

Danielle Adams scored 12 of her 19 points in the second half and the Silver Stars had 44 points in the paint to beat Phoenix Wednesday.

Griner was out with a sprained left knee, missing only her second game since injuring it in early June.

"That is entirely too much," Phoenix coach Corey Gaines said. "We couldn't get any stops. It wasn't just one person; it was the whole team. We did not necessarily shoot the ball bad."

DeLisha Milton-Jones added 16 and Shenise Johnson, Jane Appel and Danielle Robinson each had 13 for the Silver Stars (4-8), who snapped a three-game losing streak and won for the second time in nine games overall.

San Antonio became the first WNBA team other than Minnesota to beat the Mercury since June 2 at Seattle.

Candice Dupree scored 22 points and Diane Taurasi had 20 before fouling out with 2:39 to go for the Mercury (8-6), who have lost two straight after winning five in a row.

Penny Taylor's two free throws with 8:19 left gave Phoenix its final lead, 70-69, with 8:19 left. But Adams scored five straight points and Taurasi committed three fouls to foul out of the game and also had a turnover in a 96-second span as the Silver Stars opened an 83-75 lead.

Taylor finished with a season-high 14 points.

"They played better than us for forty minutes," Taurasi said. "Defensively they did better things than us, offensively they executed. We didn't do much on our end to combat that."

Sky 89, Mystics 85

Epiphanny Prince and Sylvia Fowles led Chicago to victory to overcome a tough shooting game for Elena Delle Donne.

Prince's jumper with 38.3 seconds left put the Sky ahead to stay in a win over Washington. Fowles had 26 points and 18 rebounds and Prince scored 15 for Chicago, which has won five of six.

Delle Donne shot 5 for 19 with 18 points but hit two free throws with 4.2 seconds left to seal the win.

Fowles had 10 offensive rebounds.

"She was in beast mode," Sky coach Pokey Chatman said.

Prince, who missed three games in June while playing with the Russian national team, took a pass from Courtney Vandersloot and hit a shot from the right wing to break an 85-85 tie.

"When she needs to take over, she takes over," Fowles said, "and today we needed her on that shot. And she didn't even second-guess about it. She let it go because she knew it was going in."

Prince was confident she could hit the shot even though she struggled in the second half.

"I'm not worried about my last shot," Prince said. "I always think about the next one."

Washington had a chance to tie after Prince missed with 10.7 seconds left. But Ivory Latta and Monique Currie couldn't connect before Delle Donne pulled down the rebound. The Mystics had trailed by as many as 14 points in the second half but rallied to tie it when Currie hit a free throw with 44.4 seconds to go.

Crystal Langhorne scored 18 points and Latta had 17 for the Mystics, who had a two-game winning streak snapped.

"It is frustrating," Latta said. "You fight back so hard and fall short."

Fowles had at least 10 rebounds for the ninth time in her 12 games.

"I know rebounding has been something that I can pride myself on so I just try to stay focused," Fowles said. "Offense just came naturally. The guards got me the ball. I got good looks."

The Sky are 9-4 and in good position for their first playoff berth in franchise history after starting 7-1 last year but faltering.

"This team is a better team. We could tell that from the first day of training camp," Fowles said. "We've been here before. We just can't get too comfortable, and you just take it one game at a time. You just can't let your feelings and your emotions get the best of you.

"You just have to keep a cool head and stay focused."