2007 WNBA Finals

Result

Finals MVP: Cappie Pondexter

Phoenix became the first team in WNBA history to clinch a title on the road, winning the decisive Game 5 in Detroit.

Games

Finals context

Phoenix's first championship, won entirely under coach Paul Westhead's fast-paced, run-and-gun offensive system, came against a Detroit Shock team seeking its third title in five years, and it produced a five-game slugfest that swung wildly on foul trouble and hot shooting nights. Detroit won a track-meet Game 1 at home, 108-100, out-rebounding Phoenix 48-30 and getting 50 bench points to Phoenix's 12; Penny Taylor scored 32 and Cappie Pondexter 27 for the Mercury, but Diana Taurasi, in foul trouble much of the night, managed only 10 points. Phoenix responded emphatically in Game 2, romping 108-74 as Taurasi exploded for 30 points on seven made three-pointers, leading by as many as 34 and controlling the final 37 minutes. Detroit regained the edge in Game 3, winning 88-83 behind 22 points from Katie Smith (4-of-8 from deep) and 20 from Deanna Nolan, while Phoenix shot a miserable 5-for-31 from three-point range. Game 4, back in Detroit, was decided by Pondexter's driving bank shot with 21 seconds left, giving Phoenix a 77-76 win and forcing a decisive Game 5 despite the Mercury shooting just 34.7 percent for the game. The finale, played September 16 in Detroit, saw Phoenix seize control from the opening tip, building a 20-9 lead and cruising to a 108-74 rout to clinch the title on the road — the first time in WNBA history a team had won a championship on its opponent's home floor. Pondexter, a second-year player stepping into a lead role, scored 26 points and was named Finals MVP; Taylor added 30 and Taurasi 17 in a complete offensive performance that finally solved Detroit's defense after three tightly contested prior games. The series capped a breakthrough season for a Phoenix franchise that had reached the Finals only once before, losing to Houston in 1998 during the league's early best-of-three era, and it validated Westhead's unconventional up-tempo system, which many around the league initially viewed skeptically as ill-suited to a physical, half-court-oriented sport. For Detroit, the loss ended a bid for a third title that would have matched Houston's early run atop the league, though the Shock would regroup and win their third championship the following year, in 2008, restoring their status as the league's dominant mid-decade dynasty. Taurasi's uneven series — brilliant in Games 2 and 5, hampered by foul trouble in Game 1 — reflected the broader unpredictability of a Finals in which no team managed to win consecutive games until Phoenix's closing sweep of the final two contests.

Sources

• Wikipedia — 2007 WNBA Finals
• Basketball-Reference.com — WNBA Playoffs