ATLANTA — Diana Taurasi scored 20 points, Candice Dupree added 19 and the Phoenix Mercury won their third straight game with a 92-83 victory over the Atlanta Dream on Friday night.
Penny Taylor finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists for the Mercury (3-3).
Phoenix held the Dream, who have lost three of four, without a field goal for eight minutes before Courtney Paris' layup cut the lead to 74-59 with 9:16 remaining.
Angel McCoughtry scored 24 points for Atlanta (2-6).
Taurasi hit a 3-pointer from the left corner to make it 81-63 about 3 minutes later, and Taylor followed with a fast-break layup that gave Phoenix a 20-point lead with 5:48 remaining.
Problems in the third quarter plagued Atlanta for a third straight game. The Dream were fortunate to hang on for a three-point win last Tuesday over Chicago, but this was a different story.
Atlanta trailed by six with 3:29 left in the third when coach Marynell Meadors pulled Iziane Castro-Marques out of the game after the eighth-year guard missed a 3-pointer and dropped to 5 for 16 from the field and 1 for 6 on 3-pointers.
Castro-Marques, who finished with 12 points, returned for the final minutes but missed her only field-goal attempt.
Phoenix never trailed after Kara Braxton's runner made it 4-3. Braxton scored 17 points.
The Associated Press
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