being selected to her 7th All-WNBA First Team, she was voted one of the Top 15 players in the fifteen-year history of the WNBA by fans. In 2012, Taurasi had an injury-riddled season, playing only eight games. She had to sit out the rest of the season with a strained left hip flexor. The Mercury proceeded to finish the season 7–27 as the second worst team in the league. In 2013, Taurasi returned healthy for the season, she played 32 games and averaged 20+ ppg for the sixth time in her career. The Mercury finished 3rd in the western conference with a 19–15. They defeated the Los Angeles Sparks 2–1 in the first round, advancing to the conference finals, but would lose to the Minnesota Lynx in a 2-game sweep. Entering the 2014 season, Taurasi reached the number two spot in career points per game, fifth place in career points, and ninth in career assists. In the 2014 season, with a supporting cast of all-star power forward Candice Dupree (who was traded to the Mercury in 2010), rising star Brittney Griner (who was drafted 1st overall in the 2013 WNBA draft) and the arrival of new head coach Sandy Brondello, the Phoenix Mercury finished 29–5, setting the record for most wins in a regular season, earning the top seed in the western conference. In the playoffs they advanced all the way to the WNBA Finals where they would sweep the Chicago Sky earning Taurasi her 3rd championship. Taurasi also won the WNBA Finals MVP for the second time in her career. On February 3, 2015, Taurasi announced that she would sit out the 2015 WNBA season at the request of her Russian Premier League team, UMMC Ekaterinburg. The team offered to pay Taurasi more than her WNBA salary to skip the 2015 WNBA season. For the 2014 WNBA season, Taurasi made just under the league maximum of $107,000. But she makes 14 times that – approximately $1.5 million – playing overseas. Taurasi returned to the Mercury for the 2016 WNBA season. Taurasi averaged 17.8 ppg helping the Mercury to another playoff berth with a 16–18 record. With the WNBA's new playoff format in effect, the Mercury were the number 8 seed in the league, facing the Indiana Fever in the first round. The Mercury advanced to the second round beating the Fever in the first round elimination game as Taurasi