2014 WNBA Champion, two-time Defensive Player of the Year and 2017 WNBA Scoring Champion Brittney Griner was named the Western Conference Player of the Week, as announced by the league office today. It’s the sixth career honor for Griner, the second-most by a Mercury player in franchise history (Taurasi).
Griner earns the award after leading the Mercury to a 3-0 record last week, including victories over New York, Chicago and Las Vegas to help extend the WNBA’s longest active win streak to five games. The 6-foot-9 center nearly averaged a double-double on the week, posting averages of 23.0 points, 9.7 rebounds and 4.0 blocks per game. She shot a blistering 63.6 percent (28-of-44) from the field and finished 12-of-14 from the free throw line in the three games.
After a 17-point outing on June 3 in Atlanta, Griner followed up with a 26-point, six-rebound performance on June 5 in New York. She connected on 12 of her 17 shot attempts (70.6 percent) and recorded her first career WNBA three-pointer.
Three days later in Phoenix, Griner recorded 24 points to post her first back-to-back 20-point efforts this season in a 96-79 win over Chicago on June 8. She then ended the week with a monster game, scoring 19 points and grabbing a season-best 15 rebounds for her 29th career double-double, the second-most in franchise history (Candice Dupree). Griner also swatted a season-high seven shots in 33 minutes of action, guiding the Mercury to a 72-66 win over the visiting Aces.
Through the first 10 games of the season, Griner ranks fourth in the league in scoring (21.1), 10th in rebounding (7.5) and leads the league in blocks (2.9) for sixth time in six career season. She’s currently the only player in the WNBA this year averaging at least 21 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks, something only New Orleans’ Anthony Davis accomplished during the 2017-18 NBA campaign. Griner recently became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 500 career blocks on June 1 in Minnesota, doing so in 153 career games. She tied Alonzo Mourning as the fourth fastest NBA/WNBA player to reach the milestone, trailing only Manute Bol, David Robinson and Mark Eaton.
WNBA all-time leading scorer Diana Taurasi and 2017 WNBA scoring champion Brittney Griner return to Phoenix this summer to lead the Mercury in a quest for the franchise’s WNBA-record tying fourth championship. Tickets to the Mercury’s PRIDE Night Game on June 16 against Connecticut, with special guest Adam Rippon, and the rest of the Mercury’s 2018 home games are on sale NOW and can be purchased by calling 602.252.WNBA or by visiting PhoenixMercury.com.