Mercury guard earns 6th career Player of the Week honor and 3rd with Mercury
PHOENIX – Six-time WNBA All-Star and 2022 ESPY Best WNBA Player nominee Skylar Diggins-Smith was named the Western Conference Player of the Week for the games played between July 11-July 17, as announced by the league office today. The honor marks the sixth career Player of the Week honor for Diggins-Smith and the third she’s earned as a member of the Mercury.
Diggins-Smith earns the award after posting averages of 23.3 points, 7.7 assists, 5.7 rebounds and 2.3 steals throughout the three-game span. Diggins-Smith notched her 10th career double-double on July 12 against Minnesota, recording a season-high 32 points and 10 assists to go with six rebounds, a career high five offensive boards, three steals and two blocks.
Diggins-Smith is averaging a team-high 19.4 points (fourth in the league) and 5.5 assists (seventh in the league) to go with a career high 4.2 rebounds, 1.8 steals (third in the league) and 0.9 blocks. Additionally, Diggins-Smith became just the second player in WNBA history with three consecutive games (July 7, July 12 and July 14) with 10+ points, 9+ assists and no more than one turnover, joining Courtney Vandersloot (2021) and is currently the only player in the league this season averaging 19+ points, 5+ assists, 4+ rebounds this season.
Led by the 2021 Olympic gold-medal winning duo of Diana Taurasi and Skylar Diggins-Smith and coming off the club’s fifth WNBA Finals appearance in franchise history, the three-time WNBA Champion Phoenix Mercury return to Phoenix this summer as the duo attempts to lead the Mercury to a WNBA-record tying fourth championship in 2022.