Brittney Griner's WNBA team held a tearful moment of silence at a game played hours after the star's sentencing in Russia

• Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in Russian prison on drug charges Thursday.
• Hours after the hearing, her WNBA teammates on the Phoenix Mercury suited up to play a game.

Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in Russian prison Thursday after a judge ruled she smuggled drugs into the country with criminal intent.

Mere hours after the ruling, the WNBA superstar's devastated teammates had to suit up for a game.

But before her Phoenix Mercury tipped off against the Connecticut Sun Thursday evening, both teams huddled at center court for a moment of silence in honor of the Olympian wrongfully detained some 4,500 miles away. With their faces streaked with tears, players stood arm in arm for 42 seconds — a tribute to Griner's jersey number — under the dimmed lights of Mohegan Sun Arena.

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As chants of "Bring Her Home" broke out in Uncasville, the athletes hugged one another, wiped their eyes, and tried their best to get ready to play some basketball. But as star Mercury point guard Skylar Diggins-Smith said after her team's 64-77 loss: "Nobody wanted to even play today."

"How are you supposed to approach the game, approach the court, with a clear mind?" Diggins-Smith offered as tears welled up in her eyes. "And the whole group is crying before the game? Because you try to honor her, and you try to come out and still play hard for her."

During her pre-game press conference with the media, Phoenix head coach Vanessa Nygaard explained that her team was together, in the visitors' locker room, streaming the Russian proceedings as their 6-foot-9 teammate received her verdict and sentencing. Moments later, the Mercury ran out onto the court for their shootaround.

It was "really tough" for the team to focus on anything other than Griner's plight, Nygaard said. Still, "none of our tough days are as tough as BG's days," she added.

"Obviously it's devastating," Mercury wing Diamond DeShields said after the game.

"It's heavy. It's just heavy, y'all," Diggins-Smith said, adding: "It's our sister; this is not some random Jane off the street. It's not anything we're politicizing. It's a human being, and this is our real-life friend and real-life sister. So imagine if your real-life friend or real-life sister is out here."

"And I don't expect everybody to give a damn, but we really do," she added. "And we come out here and we're still supposed to play this fucking game."

Fans can watch Diggins-Smith's and DeShields' postgame press conference below: