Going into the series, the Shock had won two championships, tied with the Los Angeles Sparks for second most in WNBA history.

The Detroit Shock shook off the absence of their interior star Cheryl Ford and held off the run-and-gun Phoenix Mercury in a wild 108–100 victory in Game 1 of the WNBA finals.

Penny Taylor scored 32 points and Cappie Pondexter had 27 to lead the Mercury, who struggled when All-Star Diana Taurasi missed significant stretches of the game with foul trouble.

Taurasi, who averaged 20 points in the Mercury's first four playoff games and 25 during the regular season, was held scoreless in the first half.

The contact on Detroit's Katie Smith resulted in Taurasi's fifth foul and she sat on the bench for the remainder of the quarter.

Taurasi's inspired play helped offset the return of forward Cheryl Ford to Detroit's lineup.

Katie Smith scored 22 points, one shy of her career playoff high, to help the defending champions beat the cold-shooting Mercury 88–83 and take a 2–1 lead in the WNBA finals.

Deanna Nolan, who scored 20, sank a crucial 3-pointer with 1:53 to go, then sealed the victory with four consecutive free throws in the final 8.3 seconds.

With the poor-shooting Phoenix Mercury on the verge of elimination, coach Paul Westhead decided to run the offense through Cappie Pondexter.

Pondexter scored a game-high 26 points, including a driving bank shot with 21 seconds to play, and the Phoenix Mercury defeated the Detroit Shock 77–76 to force a deciding fifth game in the WNBA finals.

Phoenix shot 34.7 percent from the floor in an 88–83 loss in Game 3 - matching the worst shooting percentage in Westhead's two seasons as head coach.