The Mercury had one goal when they hosted the Seattle Storm at US Airways Center Wednesday night: win, and get the taste of a bad loss to the Chicago Sky out of their mouths.

Luckily for Phoenix, they did exactly that in an 83-66 wire-to-wire victory over the Storm. Phoenix has now won nine consecutive games against Seattle. The Mercury is now 15-8 on the year.

“We did what we needed to do—obviously without Sue (Bird) and coming off a back-to-back, they had a great win last night in LA, we just needed to take care of our business,” Sandy Brondello said. “It worked out well. We didn’t want to overplay anyone and it was good to get some confidence with our bench because going forward, you’re going to need all 11 healthy players that we have.”

Here’s what we learned from #MercVsStorm:

Best Against the West  

Wednesday’s game marked the fourth game of a stretch where the Mercury will play six of eight games at US Airways Center.

With the win, Phoenix is now 8-0 at home against Western Conference opponents this season and 10-2 at home overall. The Mercury has not lost at US Airways Center since the All-Star break and one of just four WNBA teams (Minnesota, New York, Chicago) with only two losses at home this season.

“We have to take care of home court,” Noelle Quinn said. “We have to win on the road, too, but there is no doubt that we absolutely have to play well on our home floor. The X-Factor was amazing tonight.”

Over the last two seasons, Phoenix has the best home record in the WNBA at 26-3.

The Bench Came up Big    

The Mercury bench scored 47 points Wednesday night against the Storm marking a season high. The previous season high was 35 points at Seattle in a 94-79 win.

Mistie Bass had a game-high 10 rebounds, also a season high. The last time she recorded double digit rebounds was on August 6th, 2014 against the Los Angeles Sparks when she snagged 11 rebounds. Noelle Quinn added 13 big points and five assists off the bench, both season highs.

Cayla Francis totaled 11 points and six rebounds while hitting three 3-pointers.

“We needed those games—it’s a confidence booster for everybody,” DeWanna Bonner said of the Mercury’s bench. “Noelle (Quinn) and Mistie (Bass) had a great game, I think they found their rhythm. Mistie hit a lot of offensive boards like crazy today and Noelle knocked down some shots—credit to them this game.”

Defense and Rebounding Improved

After never truly finding their defensive rhythm against the Sky in Chicago, the Mercury knew they would need to make some changes on the defensive end of the floor in order to realign themselves with their identity and foundation.

Phoenix held Seattle to just 42-percent shooting and out-rebounded the Storm 39-29. The Mercury also held the Storm to only five points in the third quarter, which is lowest scoring total in a quarter by any opponent this season.

“I think it’s just trying to raise the level of intensity—sometimes we can come out flat so with BG (Brittney Griner) getting in foul trouble it was just my time to be able to set screens,” Mistie Bass added about her role and the team’s defensive intensity. “I think a lot of that is just creating opportunities for my teammates to get really good shots. Being able to dive through hard or flash really hard, getting other players in foul trouble.

“They didn’t box me out today, so just having that ability to see where the ball is going and just be able to be aggressive that way.”