Playoff Battle of Two GOATs: Bird & Taurasi
The first two games of the semifinal series between the Seattle Storm and Phoenix Mercury have been fantastic contests, featuring some of the most exciting basketball of this WNBA season. This is in no small part due to the fact that the series pits two of the best point guards ever against each other.
No matter how you break it down, Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi are two of the greatest players of all time. They are two of the best to come out of Storrs, Connecticut, where they shared the court for the University of Connecticut Huskies’ 2002 NCAA championship and combined for 28.9 points and 11.2 assists per game that season. They’re also two of the greatest in WNBA history: Bird is the all-time leader in assists and minutes played, while Taurasi is the all-time leader in points and field goals made.
Ahead of the next (and hopefully not final) match-up between these two point guards in Game 3, we broke down their head-to-head playoff record and compared their two historic careers so far.
Head-to Head Playoff Record
Bird and Taurasi, who have spent their entire WNBA careers with Seattle and Phoenix, respectively, are certainly not new to the playoffs. Bird is a two-time WNBA champion with the Storm, and Taurasi has three championships with the Mercury under her belt. After Tuesday’s Game 2, Bird said, “to win championships, you have to go through the best,” and Taurasi did just that in 2007, defeating Bird and Seattle in the first round en route to her first championship. Bird and the Storm returned the favor, going through Taurasi and the Mercury to win the 2010 championship. After Tuesday’s win for the Storm, Bird and Taurasi’s head-to-head playoff record is now tied at five-all.
Bird has been a crucial contributor to secure tight victories for Seattle in the first two games of this year’s semifinals. She had a double-double, with 10 points and 10 assists, in Game 1. In Game 2, she added 19 points, shot 50 percent from the beyond the arc, and dished out six assists.
Meanwhile, Taurasi has been an integral part of keeping Phoenix in Games 1 and 2 on the road. She scored 25 points in Game 1, while also adding eight rebounds and six assists. On Tuesday, she led a 19-point Mercury comeback in the second half to force overtime, scoring 14 points in the fourth quarter alone. On Friday night, she and the Mercury hope to extend the best-of-three series with a win at home.
Career Stats
Comparing career stats, Taurasi dominates in most categories. She leads in career points, three-pointers, and win shares, and also edges Bird in field goal percentage. However, Bird leads Taurasi in games played and has more than 1.5 times the assists.
Despite trailing Taurasi on many of the scoring stats, Birds’ totals are still extremely impressive. Taurasi’s total points and three-pointers are both WNBA records, but Bird isn’t far behind at seventh and third all-time, respectively. On the flip side, while Taurasi’s assists lag behind Bird’s, she still sits at fourth all-time.
Career Advanced Stats
Bird and Taurasi’s advanced statistics paint a similar picture of Taurasi dominating in scoring and Bird dishing more dimes. Taurasi has scored more points per scoring attempt than Bird in all but one year since 2005, her sophomore season in the league. However, Bird has edged out Taurasi in assist rate in every season except 2014.
Additionally, in 2018, Taurasi’s 14th WNBA season, she posted a career-high 1.29 points per scoring attempt. Bird is also having a career year in her 16th season, tying her prior career high of 1.21 points per scoring attempt from 2004. She also set a new career-high assist rate of 40.7 percent, meaning that she assisted on over 40 percent of her teammates’ field goals this season.
As their impressive career statistics and head-to-head contests so far indicate, Game 3 will be another fantastic contest. Will Bird or Taurasi take the lead in their head-to-head playoff battle on Friday? Be sure to tune in to find out.
All data was compiled using statistics from WNBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com.
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