Brittney Griner Repeats as WNBA Defensive Player of the Year

The 6-foot-8 center became the first player in league history to average at least four blocks a game with 105 in just 26 contests. “If I’m blocking shots or changing shots or even preventing players from taking shots, I’m helping the team and we are likely to win when our defense is playing well”.

The 2015 WNBA Playoffs begin Thursday with former Oklahoma women’s basketball star Courtney Paris looking to guide the Tulsa Shock to a league title.

“You always have to be ready”, Quigley said. Kiesel led the Shock to a 91-87 victory over the Mercury and the two teams will be paired against each other in the Western Conference semifinals. Those players don’t get the recognition they deserve. She averages 6.3 minutes of action with Phoenix in her second season.

She joins Tamika Catchings, Sheryl Swoopes, Sylvia Fowles and Teresa Weatherspoon as players to win the award in multiple seasons.

In the game prior to that, Kiesel dished out a career-high eight assists against the Chicago Sky. The Shock are 1-3-2 ATS in the last 6 meetings in Phoenix and 5-2-1 ATS in the last 8 meetings overall.

Karima Christmas, who won a WNBA title with the Indiana Fever in 2012, has been steady.

The league on Thursday announced Griner as the 2015 Defensive Player of the Year, marking the second consecutive season Griner has come away with the award.

“There’s a lot of things that didn’t go in our favor over the course of the season, but I thought the team really responded well, really bared down and rolled their sleeves up and went out and played hard”, Fred Williams said. She has started 15 of the Shock’s 34 games.

Griner has 18 points, 11 blocks as Mercury beat Shock 88-55

Brittney Griner raised the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year trophy just before tipoff and then showed why she received the honor.

Griner had 18 points and a WNBA playoff-record 11 blocks to lead the Phoenix Mercury to an 88-55 win over the Tulsa Shock on Thursday night in the opener of the Western Conference semifinals.

Griner, selected the league's top defender for the second straight year, also had eight rebounds.

"I try to go for that," Griner said of the defensive player award. "That's the one I try to get. I just want to show why I won it."

Griner, who led the league in blocks with 105 this season, broke her own single-game postseason record and shot 5 for 7 from the field and 8 for 9 on free throws.

DeWanna Bonner added 15 points for the defending champion Mercury.

Phoenix, the No. 2 seed in the West, hasn't lost a first-round playoff series since 2000 and is 10-1 all-time in a playoff series after winning the first game.

"We are hitting our peak at the right time and that's what you want going into the playoffs, feeling good about yourself," Mercury coach Sandy Brondello said. "It all starts with defense with me."

Phoenix took control of the game in the second quarter, turning a seven-point lead to a 30-point advantage at halftime. The Shock shot just 3 for 22 from the field while getting outscored 30-7 in the second quarter.

Odyssey Sims led Tulsa with 18 points and Jordan Hooper had 14 points and six rebounds. Plenette Pierson added 10 points and also had six boards.

Game 2 of the best-of-three series is Saturday in Tulsa.

"We just have to shoot the ball better," Tulsa coach Fred Williams said. "Brittney was just on rhythm. She's a hard guard for any team in this league and we know that. So we just have to continue to find ways to get her away from the rim."

This is the Shock's first playoff appearance since moving to Oklahoma from Detroit before the 2010 season, and the team is relocating to the Dallas-Fort Worth area next season.

Griner, who was suspended for the season's first seven games, blocked three shots in the first quarter before leaving with two fouls. She converted a pair of three-point plays and led the Mercury on both ends of the floor with her offense and defense.

Phoenix led 22-15 at the end of the first quarter with Tulsa shooting 7 for 23.

The Mercury extended its lead to 13 points to open the second quarter after two 3s by Leilani Mitchell, who finished with 12 points and six assists. Mitchell then set up Mistie Bass for a layup in transition for a 30-17 lead.

"We just did a good job of making the extra pass," said Mitchell, who signed with Phoenix in the offseason. "That's one of the reasons that I'm here, is to knock down open 3s."

Tulsa went almost 4 1/2 minutes without a point in the quarter. Bonner hit a corner 3 and a reverse layup during that stretch as Phoenix went on an 11-0 run and led 52-22 at halftime.

The Shock pulled 56-38 on a 3 by Sims with 4:23 left in the third quarter. But Mitchell made a 3 as the shot clock expired with 1:19 left to put Phoenix up 65-40.

The Shock never got closer than 23 points the rest of the way.

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Mercury rout Shock behind Brittney Griner's block party

PHOENIX -- Brittney Griner literally rolled into the pregame news conference to announce that she had been named the WNBA's Defensive Player of the Year for the second year in a row.

She arrived at the platform on a hoverboard, one of those two-wheeled contraptions that looks like a Segway without the handles.

The first time Phoenix Mercury general manager Jim Pitman saw his star center riding around on her new toy, he admitted it made him "very nervous."

"But I've seen other people ride it and she is, by far, the best at it," Pitman said. "So I feel a little better about that."

Even in the face of the most publicly tumultuous year of her basketball career, it's really difficult not to feel good about Griner in any context.

She is the most dominant paint presence in the women's game, on her way to being regarded as the best ever. She is relaxed and confident in her game. She is championship-tested after last year's run to the WNBA title for the Mercury. And she is hungry for another.

"I just want to get better and I want to win," Griner said before the game.

And then she went out on to the floor at Talking Stick Arena on Thursday in the opening game of the WNBA playoffs and she proved it.

Her play inside set a tone for a night that was far less dramatic than most assumed it would be, Phoenix winning in a blowout, 88-55 over the Tulsa Shock.

Phoenix takes a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series, which will continue Saturday in Tulsa. Phoenix is 10-1 all time in a playoff series after taking a 1-0 lead.

In 24 minutes on the floor, Griner collected 18 points, eight rebounds and 11 blocked shots, breaking the single-game WNBA playoff record for blocks and matching her own regular-season single-game record, which she earned last season against Tulsa on June 29.

"To come out and dominate like she did tonight, that's amazing," Phoenix coach Sandy Brondello said. "That's how important she is to this team. ... When you have a player like that who takes pride on the defensive end, it makes everyone else around them better. She's just becoming a better player."

By halftime, Griner had 13 points and seven blocks, and Phoenix had a 52-22 lead.

"We definitely wanted to come out with a spark," Griner said. "Whenever I had the ball, I just wanted to be aggressive and go toward the basket and try to get their posts in foul trouble and block shots. I wanted to set a tone tonight."

The Shock simply cannot hope to get out of this series -- their first playoff appearance since the franchise moved to Tulsa in 2010 -- without containing Griner to some degree.

Asked what can be done to slow Griner, Shock coach Fred Williams smirked.

"She's a very hard guard for any team in this league and we know that," Williams said. "She was in a rhythm tonight. We brought doubles. She just really wanted to be a force at catching the basketball and getting to the rim. We need to get her away from the rim."

If Griner can write herself another happy ending to this season, it will be an impressive comeback considering its rocky start. In the spring, a domestic violence arrest earned her and then-fiancée Glory Johnson each a seven-game suspension by the league. Griner was sent to a court-ordered counseling program. The drama continued with the subsequent marriage to Johnson and, 28 days later, the announcement of a pregnancy and a divorce.

Griner has found herself making regular appearances in the tabloids, and having newspapers and television stations covering her contentious divorce proceedings.

But Pitman said he was always concerned more for Griner than about her.

"I know what kind of person she is and she's a really good person at the core," Pitman said. "I was concerned about making sure she was always in the right frame of mind. We had conversations and she's just been terrific through this whole process. She took responsibility for her actions, she did what she was supposed to do from a personal standpoint."

"She was in a rhythm tonight. We brought doubles. She just really wanted to be a force at catching the basketball and getting to the rim."

Tulsa coach Fred Williams

She has done what she was supposed to do on the court as well.

Griner joined a team that was still trying to find its footing without Diana Taurasi and Penny Taylor on the floor, and immediately, the Mercury began to stabilize.

Griner stabilized as well.

Now that Phoenix is back in the playoffs, Griner looks better than she ever has as a professional basketball player, even if her personal life is not completely settled.

"What I've learned is, keep it on the court," she said.

Griner said last year's championship run taught her that nothing comes easy, a lesson she carried to the floor Thursday when she brought her best from the outset.

"I know what it takes to go all the way," Griner said. "I know what intensity level I need to come out with. You have to give it your best shot."

Griner left the postgame news conference once again rolling out of the room on her hoverboard. She smiled and patted Pitman on the back as she rolled out.

"Don't worry," she told her boss.

Don't worry, indeed.

Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner repeats as WNBA defensive player of the

In the spring, a domestic violence arrest earned her and then-fiancée Glory Johnson each a seven-game suspension by the league. Griner is also the only player in Phoenix Mercury history to ever win the award. New York didn’t have a basket in the second overtime after Tanisha Wright’s 3-pointer opened the scoring until Epiphanny Prince hit a 3 with 1.1 seconds left that made it 85-83.

Even in the face of the most publicly tumultuous year of her basketball career, it’s really hard not to feel good about Griner in any context. Tamika Catchings won it five times and Sheryl Swoopes three. Teresa Weatherspoon and Sylvia Fowles have won it twice.

Bill Laimbeer was honored Thursday night as the league’s coach of the year. This will be the third consecutive season these two teams have met in the playoffs, with Indiana sweeping Chicago in the first round two years ago. She received 24 votes.

Hooper has been a key contributor in the lineup averaging almost 18 minutes a game.

“The playoffs is another level and you’ve got to be serious about it because it’s a different experience when you step out there”, said Currie, who has playoff experience from her time with the Mystics.

The Mercury star had been named WNBA Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season earlier in the day. Chicago’s guard said last year’s award is at her parent’s house and she plans to put this one there as well.

Stokes finished second with 11 votes.

“I don’t think we are trying to defend a championship”, Currie said, “we are trying to get a championship”. She converted a pair of three-point plays and led the Mercury on both ends of the floor with her offense and defense. She always draws the toughest defensive assignment. Coach Fred got me comfortable starting or coming off the bench.

Griner's double-double completes Mercury sweep

TULSA, Okla. -- Brittney Griner did whatever she wanted against the Tulsa Shock.

The 6-foot-9 center had 23 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks, and the defending champion Phoenix Mercury won 91-67 on Saturday night to advance to the Western Conference finals.

Griner had 18 points, eight rebounds and a playoff-record 11 blocks in Game 1.

"Griner is really in a rhythm right now in her game and in her career," Tulsa coach Fred Williams said. "She's a hard young lady to stop inside that paint."

DeWanna Bonner had 20 points and 11 rebounds, Monique Currie scored 11 points and Candice DuPree added 10 for the Mercury, who swept the opening-round series and will next face Minnesota or Los Angeles.

Griner said she's not worried about which team is next.

"It doesn't matter," she said. "We're going to play hard no matter who we play."

Odyssey Sims scored 22 points for Tulsa in its only home playoff game in six seasons since moving from Detroit. The Shock will move to the Dallas area next year.

It's an especially tough move for Courtney Paris, who played college ball at Oklahoma.

"For me, especially, it's sad for me to leave Tulsa, and leave Oklahoma," she said. "I just appreciate all the fans and all the support the last couple years. It was up and down the first couple years, and the only thing that was consistent was the support of the fans."

Tulsa endured a season-ending knee injury to All-Star Skylar Diggins and a pregnancy that cost Glory Johnson the season to reach the playoffs. Even with the game out of reach, most of the crowd of 3,261 remained energetic and stayed until the end.

"I'm proud of the team, and I look forward to the future with this group of women," Diggins said. "From the outside looking in, I've gotten to watch so many players grow. So many great moments that we've been able to share with the city of Tulsa."

The Mercury led 55-22 at halftime of Game 1 on Thursday night before winning 88-55. Tulsa was better this time. Griner picked up two fouls in the first quarter and barely played in the first half. The Shock took advantage and went up 26-21 in the second quarter.

Griner returned from a break, and the Mercury went on an 8-0 run to go up 29-26 before she committed her third foul. Phoenix maintained control this time, bumping its lead to 41-31 at halftime.

"That was pretty huge," Bonner said. "That's when we got things turned around and got momentum going in to halftime. When you've got momentum and you've got her coming back in the second half, that's huge."

The Mercury pushed their lead to 64-48 at the end of the third quarter. Tulsa forward Plenette Pierson said the final result doesn't diminish the team's accomplishment.

"We had a great season this season," she said. "I think we proved a lot of people wrong. We believed in each other, and we grew together as a group. Tonight was not a failure for us. The season was not a failure for us."