WNBA GOATDiana Taurasi sat courtside at the Lakers-Suns playoff game in Phoenix Tuesday night.- At the same time, her Mercury teammates took down the Chicago Sky on the road in thrilling fashion.
- Taurasi may have gotten caught watching
Kia Nurse 's half-court, buzzer-beater on her phone.
Kia Nurse took the WNBA world by storm Tuesday night when she drained a mind-boggling buzzer-beater to lift her
Her Mercury teammate, basketball legend Diana Taurasi, appeared to be watching Nurse's remarkable shot fall from courtside - albeit at the wrong game.
The WNBA GOAT - or greatest of all time - did not travel with the team to Chicago thanks to a sternum fracture she sustained a few weeks prior. Instead, she accompanied Phoenix Mercury and Suns owner Robert Sarver to Game 5 of the Lakers-Suns first-round NBA playoffs series. But when the TNT broadcast panned to the WNBA's all-time leading scorer sitting courtside at Phoenix Suns Arena, the cameras caught her with her head down.
-Aya Abdeen #SayHerName ✊ (@ayaabdeen__) June 2, 2021
It was retired WNBA superstar Ticha Penicheiro who then suggested on Twitter that Taurasi's eyes may have been glued to her phone screen as the Mercury's battle in Chicago came down to the wire.
-Ticha Penicheiro (@TichaPenicheiro) June 2, 2021
By the time the Suns and Lakers tipped off, Taurasi's Mercury teammates were already in the heat of a tight contest at Wintrust Arena. And though the Sky held a 10-point lead as late as six minutes into the fourth quarter, Phoenix managed to make it a one-possession game with just 29.9 seconds left in the contest.
Chicago ran most of that time off the clock before Kahleah Copper took a jump shot that rattled off the rim and ricocheted into Nurse's hands. She dribbled upcourt, Euro stepped around an opponent and chucked up a prayer from half-court with 1.2 seconds remaining.
It dropped through the net as the buzzer sounded to give Phoenix the miraculous and thrilling one-point win. Check out the replay below:
Though she surely would've preferred to experience the Mercury victory on the court with her teammates, Taurasi still witnessed a Phoenix win in-person. She watched Devin Booker drop 30 points to help the Suns stomp the Lakers 115-85 to take a 3-2 lead in the series.
The Suns will travel to Los Angeles Thursday for a chance to advance to the second round. Perhaps Taurasi - a Glendale, California native - will head home to take in Game 6 at the Staples Center, though she'll likely opt to stay in Phoenix and watch her Mercury host the Sky.