Nate Tibbetts feeling ‘disappointed’ in Mercury’s turnovers vs Aces

PHOENIX– Is progress being made? A 4-12 record wouldn’t signal it, but the Phoenix Mercury are making positive strides. But on Wednesday, their 86-76 defeat by the Las Vegas Aces left head coach Nate Tibbetts discouraged.

The Mercury were changing things during their dry spell, and one of them was addressing the turnovers. Unfortunately for them, Las Vegas got its hands on plenty of self-induced mistakes.

Phoenix had 22 compared to the Aces’ nine; a major discrepancy that highlighted the final 20 minutes of the game. They ran the second half, taking advantage of careless passes, being extra aggressive in guarding ball-handlers, or a mix of the two.

It was so much so that they capitalized and turned those into 28 points. In a game like Wednesday’s, every point down the stretch is crucial.

“I think we were just careless at times, to be quite honest,” Tibbetts said postgame. “We’ll have to take a look at it. I mean, our goal is 12. I mean, we’re not even close, right? You just can’t do that. It just gets them out in transition, and it’s deflating.

“Very disappointed in the turnovers for sure.”

Nate Tibbetts on the Mercury’s 20 turnovers.

“I think we were just careless at times to be quite honest. We’ll have to take a look at it. I mean, our goal is 12. I mean, we’re not even close, right? You just can’t do that.”

Q: @CydHenderson pic.twitter.com/65ksTh5HB6

— Hayden Cilley (@HaydenCilley) June 18, 2026

Nate Tibbetts isn’t the only who felt the Mercury’s turnover dilemma

The turnovers weren’t towards one person (although Alyssa Thomas had six of them); they were dispersed evenly across the entire team.

As Tibbetts said, many of them were careless, and a point that Kahleah Copper only emphasized in her postgame press conference.

Sitting next to her was Jovana Nogic, who had two turnovers in the contest, and was candid about the rotten fruit stemming from those.

“When you get turnovers, you’re not scoring the ball, and you’re giving them a chance on the fast break points,” the Phoenix guard said.

“Of course, you want to minimize those or not have them at all. And the ones that we had gave them a lot of fastbreak points.”

Luckily, the Mercury might have an easier break on Saturday as they take on the Seattle Storm. That might be a time of cleaning up the turnovers and having this be a bad one-game sample size.

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