Skylar Diggins-Smith's status uncertain as Phoenix Mercury fight for WNBA playoff spot

The status of All-Star guard Skylar Diggins-Smith remains uncertain as the Phoenix Mercury continue to battle for one of the last two WNBA playoff spots with two games remaining in the regular season.

Diggins-Smith, the team's leader in scoring and assists this season, did not play in Saturday's victory over New York or Tuesday's loss to Minnesota. She was listed as out with a non-COVID illness for the first game and out for personal reasons for the second.

The Mercury (14-20) are tied with Atlanta, Minnesota and New York, while Los Angeles (13-21) is also in the playoff race heading into Thursday's games. The only team that already has been eliminated from the postseason is Indiana.

With two WNBA playoff spots still yet to be decided, there are four teams that are tied and another that is just one game back with two games remaining.

Phoenix's remaining games are both at home, against Dallas (Friday) and Chicago (Sunday), which beat the Mercury in the WNBA Finals last year.

The Mercury announced Monday that veteran guard Diana Taurasi would miss the rest of the regular season with a quad strain. The team said her status for the playoffs would be updated if the Mercury make the postseason.

Phoenix coach Vanessa Nygaard on Tuesday didn't indicate whether she expected Diggins-Smith to play again for the Mercury. According to salary cap information provided by Her Hoops Stats, Diggins-Smith is signed with Phoenix through next season and will be an unrestricted free agent in 2024.

«We found out before the game,» Nygaard said of Diggins-Smith missing Tuesday's game. «We have gone through this earlier on Saturday. We're just one day at a time moving forward. We've seen everything this year, so whatever gets thrown at us, we're