DeWanna Bonner Aims for Indiana Fever Revenge Through Fiancé Alyssa Thomas’ MVP Motivation

“She’s toward the end of her career, like she deserves her flowers; she deserves to be happy.” When Sophie Cunningham said these words on her podcast, they must have lit a fire inside DeWanna Bonner. A fire so strong that she scored 23 points with 7 rebounds for Phoenix the next time they faced each other. Her strong performance took revenge for the earlier defeat by Indiana. Now she has a chance to do it all over again.

The Indiana Fever will visit the Phoenix Mercury again in PHX Arena on Tuesday for the regular-season series decider. While Phoenix has already attained a playoff berth, Indiana is still fighting for one. So Bonner has a chance to throw a wrench in the postseason hopes of Caitlin Clark and Indiana. But she won’t be alone in it as she’ll have the help of an MVP-caliber player on the court.

She has her fiancé and teammate Alyssa Thomas to back her, a player not only in MVP conversations but also the engine behind Phoenix’s resurgence. The Phoenix side is pushing Thomas to join the MVP race with the campaign AT for MVP. For Bonner, Thomas’ chase for MVP isn’t just a campaign; it’s motivation. Seeing her partner dominate night after night has sharpened Bonner’s own edge. The Fever game provides the perfect stage for both of them: Thomas to cement her MVP case, and Bonner to take revenge against her old team.

Talking after their 80-63 Liberty win, DeWanna Bonner sang praises for her fiancé. “I don’t even think it’s this season. I think Alyssa’s just been consistent throughout her whole career. If you look back at her stats in Connecticut, she’s done this before. She has had an MVP season before, and we rely on her heavily. She leads us, but the system is open. It’s free. There are no positions, but she just does her thing every single night,” she said.

In the 2025 season, Alyssa Thomas is averaging 15.8 points per game, along with 8.9 rebounds and 9.2 assists per game. It is safe to assume the offensive flair of Mercury is flowing through her. She got consecutive triple-doubles against the Valkyries (13-12-16) and the Sparks (12-16-15), showing her dominance on the court. With these two outings, she broke the single-season record by scoring her seventh triple-double in 2025. The previous record holder? You guessed it, Alyssa Thomas.

Thomas is also the only WNBA player to record at least 15 assists and 15 rebounds in a game, which she did against LA. With Thomas orchestrating the offense at this historic pace, Bonner has been free to channel her energy toward delivering big-game moments, like the 23-point stint against the Fever earlier. And Fever’s injuries will make this job a lot easier on Tuesday. Sophie Cunningham, Sydney Colson, and Aari McDonald are out with season-ending injuries. Caitlin Clark is making progress but still has no fixed timeline for her return. Chloe Bibby, the player brought in as an injury replacement, is herself sitting on the bench due to a left knee injury.

Add to the fact, Lexie Hull played the LA Sparks game with two black eyes due to the roster being extremely thin. The Fever have five games remaining in the regular season, and they need to win a majority of them to have a better chance at making the postseason. However, Bonner, Thomas, and Mercury will be waiting to hand them another loss. But in the meantime, Bonner has made a record push of her own.

DeWanna Bonner etches name in WNBA’s all-time top 10 in another category

DeWanna Bonner already has her name in quite a few top all-time 10 lists, be it in points or rebounds; she’s been around for a long time and has been racking up those numbers. But with the final whistle of the game against New York, DeWanna Bonner added 9 points, 7 rebounds, and 1 steal to her stat line. That lone steal, though, carried more weight than the rest. It officially pushed her into ninth place on the WNBA’s all-time steals leaderboard, where she now sits with 628 career steals. Bonner had broken into the top 10 earlier. A five-steal showcase in a narrow win over the Chicago Sky was a worthy event for her entry in the top 10.

Furthermore, joining a list that features legends like Tamika Catchings (1,074), Sheryl Swoopes (657), and Sue Bird (724) only underlines the caliber of her career. At age 37, she is still making history, with a realistic shot at making the top 5. She has five regular-season games left and an average of 0.9 steals per game. Realistically speaking, she can finish the regular season around 633 or 634 steals. That would land her just below Swoopes and in the seventh spot. She will surpass Sancho Lyttle (630) and tie with Jia Perkins (634).

However, Mercury also has a postseason run, which would help boost her stats further. If she maintains her defensive momentum, Bonner could close the gap on Sheryl Swoopes at sixth as well. DeWanna Bonner will next appear on the court against the Indiana Fever in PHX Arena on September 2.