Mercury-Stars preview

The Phoenix Mercury are hoping to improve their playoff positioning when they visit the San Antonio Stars on the final day of the regular season on Sunday at AT&T Center in San Antonio.

Phoenix (15-18) and the Seattle Storm are tied for third in the WNBA's Western Conference, four games ahead of the fifth-place Dallas Wings. Phoenix and Seattle have clinched playoff berths and both have one game remaining. One will enter the playoffs as the No. 7 seed, the other as the No. 8 seed.

Seattle won the season series against Phoenix and would hold the tiebreaker if the teams finish with identical records. Neither can move past the Atlanta Dream or Indiana Fever for the fifth or sixth seeds because the Dream and Fever won their respective season series against Seattle and Phoenix.

San Antonio (7-26) is last in the Western Conference and has the worst record in the WNBA. The Stars have lost seven of their last eight games and 13 of their last 15.

Phoenix secured the final playoff berth with a resounding 86-62 victory over Seattle on Thursday. Brittney Griner scored 21 points, Diana Taurasi had 15 points and Candice Dupree added 14 points and seven rebounds for the Mercury.

Penny Taylor, a three-time WNBA All-Star who announced in July that she will retire at the end of the season, had eight points and four steals in her final regular-season home game.

San Antonio is coming off a 71-65 loss to the Los Angeles Sparks. The Stars were down by 14 in the third quarter and trailed by 11 in the fourth but stormed back to take a momentary lead before fading in the final minutes.

Moriah Jefferson scored 18 points and Monique Currie had 17 for the Stars.

Taurasi leads Phoenix in scoring, averaging 17.8 points per game. DeWanna Bonner averages 14.6 points, Griner 14.5 and Taylor 12.6.

Jefferson averages 13.8 points per game and Currie 10.5 for San Antonio.