The Phoenix Mercury have had a season filled with injuries, drama, and turmoil, but despite all of that they found themselves in the playoffs as the 8-seed, heading to Las Vegas on Wednesday night for Game 1 of their first round series against the Aces.
As has been the case with the Mercury all season, they came out fighting despite their numerous absences — most notably with a recent injury to Diana Taurasi and Skylar Diggins-Smith leaving the team for personal reasons, leaving them without their top two scorers on the season. Phoenix was able to jump out to an early lead, and while the Aces would eventually jump in front, the Mercury hung around throughout the game.
Phoenix would stay within a possession or two of the Aces for most of the second half, but in the third quarter they saw another key player go down, as Shey Peddy, who had eight points and five assists at the time, collapsed to the floor and had to be carried to the locker room after suffering a non-contact injury.
The Mercury's Shey Peddy was carried off the court after a non-contact injury on this play. pic.twitter.com/7vorxsHDbl
— ESPN (@espn) August 18, 2022
The official word from the Mercury was that Peddy would not return due to a “lower leg injury,” but the fear of most was that it was an achilles issue — with Aces guard Kelsey Plum noting to reporters courtside that she thought it looked like her own achilles injury.
Kelsey Plum says that she saw Shey Peddy's injury and that it looked like her own Achilles injury.
— Chantel Jennings (@ChantelJennings) August 18, 2022
We won’t know for sure until testing can be done, likely tomorrow, but if that is the case, it’ll be a long road back for Peddy but one that others, like Plum and Breanna Stewart, have shown can be traversed and that you can return better than ever.
