Self improvement=2

More threes are made as a result of the all-time three-point shooter and a three-point coaching philosophy.

On June 12, 2022, in the Entertainment and Sports Arena in Washington, D.C., Vanessa Nygaard will play for the Phoenix versus the Mystics. (Domenic Allegra | The Next provided the photo.)

The Phoenix Mercury left Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indiana having won four of their previous five games and with a well-defined identity: dependability on threes.

Vanessa Nygaard, the team's head coach, gives thanks to her coaching philosophy and to having Diana Taurasi, the best 3-point shooter of all time, on her team.

We're going to shoot threes since Diana is the game's top three-point shooter, Nygaard stated following the contest. Three is preferable to two, according to Nygaard's collegiate coach (Tara VanDerveer at Stanford). When we consistently make that shot, "it opens up the court more for our scorers, and the games we've made those open threes, we've been successful."

Phoenix is top-five in the nation in three-point percentage of points scored (31.5%), proving that Nygaard's three-point philosophy was put into practise. With 125 attempted threes and 42 made, Taurasi leads the league in both categories. With 45 threes, she just has one less than Las Vegas Aces guard Kelsey Plum.