Nate Tibbetts and Breanna Stewart hailed Alyssa Thomas after her star turn for the Phoenix Mercury against the New York Liberty.

Thomas made WNBA postseason history on Friday by recording a 20-point triple-double in a 79-73 win for the Mercury in Game 3 of their playoff series against the defending champions.

It marked a ninth triple-double of the season for Thomas, who also contributed 11 rebounds and 11 assists and was named as a contender for the WNBA MVP award earlier on Friday.

She also became just the second player, after Sheryl Swoopes in 2005, to record a triple-double in a winner-take-all matchup.

"This is just what she does," enthused Mercury coach Tibbetts, as quoted by ESPN.

"She impacts the game in so many different ways. She cares about one thing and that's winning.

"When you've got a player of her calibre and with that much pride to win a game, you're going to have a great game."

Alyssa Thomas is THE triple-double queen

She was unrelenting in the @PhoenixMercury's Game 3 win over New York!

Thomas became the first player in WNBA history to record a 20-point triple-double in the postseason
Recorded the fifth triple-double of her playoff career… pic.twitter.com/QHjw81LuAX

— WNBA (@WNBA) September 20, 2025

Two-time WNBA MVP Stewart scored 30 points for the Liberty, but just fell short of keeping their title defence alive.

And the three-time WNBA champion gave full credit to Thomas.

"AT is incredible," Stewart said, having become the fastest player in WNBA history to amass 1,000 postseason points, doing so in 46 games.

"While this sucks, I'm excited to see what she continues to do with the rest of the playoffs because we had a nightmare guarding her. I'm sure everybody else will, too."

Stewart scored all of the Liberty's 14 points in the final quarter, despite having to deal with an ankle sprain sustained earlier in the series.

"When I got hurt on Sunday, I could barely walk out of this arena," Stewart added.

"I was really worried that I tore something. I'm really grateful for not doing that, and if there was a slight chance I could play, I was going to be out here with my team.

"But trying to be my best and really focusing on getting back and focusing on myself and doing whatever I could to keep us in it, and it wasn't enough. So while it might be memorable, it still sucks."

Next up for the Mercury is a semifinal best-of-five series against the Minnesota Lynx, who held a 3-1 record against Phoenix across the regular season.

Thomas, though, warned that the Lynx "haven't seen us at full strength."