Diana Taurasi has a chance to reach 10,000 career points when she and her Phoenix Mercury teammates host the Atlanta Dream on Thursday night.
Taurasi, the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer, put herself in position to reach the milestone after scoring a season-high 29 points in a 72-71 road loss to the Indiana Fever on Tuesday. That surpassed her previous season-high of 24 that she had on Sunday.
Averaging 16.1 points on the season, Taurasi is 18 points short of 10,000.
The anticipation of Taurasi’s latest milestone is a rare bright spot in what has been a poor season for the Mercury (6-19), who are tied for the worst record in the league.
The Dream (14-12), meanwhile, actually are chasing a championship as they sit in the middle of the playoff pack, though they’re coming off a 93-72 loss to the league-leading Aces in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
Atlanta has gotten a lift from forward Nia Coffey, who scored a season-high 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds against Washington on Sunday, then scored 14 points against the Aces.
Coffey joined the Dream before last season after playing with the Mercury in 2020 and Los Angeles in 2021.
