Phoenix Mercury's Diana Taurasi to miss rest of WNBA regular season with quad strain

Diana Taurasi, a three-time WNBA champion and the league's all-time leading scorer, will miss the remainder of the regular season with a quad strain, the Phoenix Mercury announced Monday, as the team fights to clinch a playoff berth in the final week.

Regarding the possibility of Taurasi returning for a potential playoff run, a Mercury spokesperson said, «She is out for the remainder of the regular season and will provide more info if/when we do make the playoffs.»

The team also said Taurasi would be made available to media sometime this week.

Yvonne «Vonnie» Turner has been signed to a hardship contract to fill Taurasi's roster spot.

Taurasi's 16.7 points and 3.9 assists per game were second-best on the squad behind Skylar Diggins-Smith's 19.7 and 5.5. The former three-time UConn champion and five-time Olympic gold medalist last played on Aug. 2, where she suffered the injury playing 11 minutes in a loss to Connecticut.

Taurasi had been initially listed as «questionable» heading into the Mercury's two most recent games, with head coach Vanessa Nygaard indicating before Saturday's game against the Liberty that Taurasi was being evaluated that day to see if she would be able to take the floor.

Phoenix is one of six teams fighting for three unclaimed playoffs spots. Though the Mercury would have secured the eighth and final playoff spot had the regular season ended Tuesday, the Liberty are just a half game behind them, while the Lynx and Sparks are both one game back, with seven days remaining in the regular season.

ESPN's BPI gave the Mercury a 67.5% chance of making the playoffs — second-best of the six teams in the hunt — before the news of Taurasi's season-ending injury. Phoenix has three games left in the regular