In an impressive come-from-behind victory, the Mercury beat the Dream 80-71 at home Tuesday night behind 22 points apiece from Brittney Griner and Candice Dupree. The win extends their winning streak to six games, which is the longest active winning streak in the WNBA and is tied for the third-longest streak in team history.

Remarkably, Phoenix improved to 22-2 (.917) in the regular season at US Airways Center under Sandy Brondello.

Phoenix came back after being down by 13 points marking the largest comeback by the Mercury this season. The Mercury trailed the Dream by 13 points (51-38) in the third quarter.

Indeed, it wasn’t easy — especially considering Atlanta hit 13 three-pointers on the evening.

“We knuckled down defensively,” Sandy Brondello said. “Momentum changes in the game of basketball and we were on our back foot. Given that many three’s as we did, I think that was a mental focus. But I love how we responded in the second half, we let them score 23 points against a team that obviously can put the ball in the basket—that was a great effort.”

The 23 points allowed by Phoenix in the second half were an opponent season low while the 48 points allowed in the first half by the Mercury marked an opponent season-high.

Here’s what we learned from #MercVsDream:

All-Star Starters for a Reason  

Candice Dupree and Brittney Griner were named All-Star starters for the Western Conference earlier in the day, and they proved exactly why against the Dream.

“It’s a huge honor,” Dupree said. “This is my first time being named a starter—I appreciate all the support from the fans for voting. I know every time I logged onto Facebook, I’d see a relative with the hashtag. It’ll be fun—BG, (Brittney Griner) and hopefully DB (DeWanna Bonner) will be on there and then our entire coaching staff—so we’ll have a good time.”

Dupree (22) and Griner (22) combined to score 44 points and grab 14 rebounds. Griner added four blocks.

Dupree, on the other hand, scored a season-high 22 points and now only needs seven points to become the 19th player in WNBA history to reach the 4,500 point mark.

Turning the Defense Around    

As mentioned above, the Mercury gave up a season-high 48 points in the first half behind an astounding 10 three-pointers from the Dream who seemingly couldn’t miss a shot in the second quarter.

However, the Mercury locked down on defense and held the Dream to an opponent season low 23 points in the second half.

“Thinking about how many three’s we let them have—that was the turning point for us and then looking at the score, we were down ten,” Brittney Griner said about the turnaround at halftime. “It was good that the game happened like this because it showed us that we can buckle down and fight back when we do get those games when we’re all behind.

“We don’t want them but we can fight back and this was a good win for us.”

The Importance of the Mercury’s Bench

The box score will show Dupree, Griner and Bonner combining to score 62 of the Mercury’s 80 points, but the team’s bench was absolutely vital in the win.

“Marta [Xargay] and Cayla [Francis] came in and gave us some really good minutes,” Brondello added. “Marta is a tenacious defender and Cayla came in and knocked down a couple shots right away — that’s not easy to do.”

The Mercury will return to US Airways Center on Saturday, July 18 to take on the New York Liberty at 7:00 p.m.