Matthew Casey/KJZZ

The Phoenix Mercury play the Los Angeles Sparks at the Footprint Center on July 28, 2022.

The Phoenix Mercury’s season ended over the weekend with a 117-80 loss to the Las Vegas Aces; the top-seeded Aces swept the eighth-seeded Mercury out of the playoffs in the first round a year after Phoenix reached the WNBA Finals.

But a lot has happened between then and now — most notably, Brittney Griner was arrested and wrongfully detained in Russia; she was sentenced to nine years in prison during the season.

But the Mercury also dealt with injuries, personality conflicts and other issues over the course of their season.

To break down what happened and look ahead to next year, The Show spoke with Cassandra Negley, a sports writer who covers women’s basketball for Yahoo Sports.

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