The WNBA has reconvened after an exciting Olympics event in Paris. Over the last remaining weeks of the regular season, teams such as the Las Vegas Aces, New York Liberty and Connecticut Sun are looked at as squads to keep an eye on down the stretch, given their championship aspirations. This is even the case for the Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever: two teams with the two best rookie performers fighting for the last playoff spots.
But one team to pay attention to that happens to be outside the postseason picture: the Washington Mystics.
The Mystics began the season poorly, starting with a 0-12 record. At this point, it looked like Washington was definitively the worst team in the league. But, to their credit, they stayed the course and found a way to finally get their first victory of the season, winning six out of the next 13 games in the process to enter the Olympic break with a 6-19 record.
The Mystics returned to action last night and lost 79-68 to the Minnesota Lynx. Now, the team stands at 6-20.
They could easily have a better record than they do, but they faltered a couple of times with poor fourth-quarter performances. The Mystics are 5-5 in games when entering the fourth quarter with a lead; they are 5-9 when leading or tied to begin the fourth quarter.
Some of their fourth-quarter adventures include losing a home game on June 27 against the Sun; the game was tied 65-65 entering the fourth quarter, and the Mystics found themselves up by seven with about two and a half minutes left in regulation. However, the team committed crucial turnovers down the stretch during the Sun’s 7-0 run to end the fourth quarter and force overtime; the Sun eventually won the game 94-91.
One of those “fourth-quarter games” that they were on the winning side of was their road game on July 10 against the Fever. The Mystics led by as many as 22 in the third quarter and entered the fourth quarter up by 21. But, the Fever began a ferocious charge to come back in the final quarter of regulation and cut the lead to three with under a minute left. Julie Vanloo ultimately put the game out of reach with two made free throws to win the game 89-84, cementing arguably one of Washington’s better wins on the season.
So far this season, in the fourth quarter, the Mystics are last in the league in points per game (16.8 PPG), rebounds per game (7.6 RPG), field goal percentage (37.6 percent) and three-point field goal percentage (21.7 percent). The fourth-quarter and clutch time struggles are among the issues that have prevented Washington from having a better season.
Over the past few seasons, the Mystics have been unlucky with injuries to key players. Shakira Austin has only played seven games this season due to a hip injury. The hip has been a problem for Austin since last season, and she had surgery on it during this past offseason. Unfortunately for her and the team, it was still a lingering issue that caused her to miss a chunk of the season to address it.
Austin played in all 36 regular season games and both Mystics playoff games as a rookie in 2022. But over the last two seasons, she has missed 42 out of a possible 68 games, which includes the team’s two postseason games last year.
The Mystics have also played without Brittney Sykes for most of the season. Sykes has only played four games this season because of ankle and foot injuries. The injury bug also bit Karlie Samuelson right before the Olympic break; she missed the last few games of the season due to a left-hand fracture.
Samuelson, Sykes and Austin used the Olympic break to recover, and for each player, last night’s game against the Lynx was the first game back from injury. Sykes tallied 11 points, four rebounds and three assists. Austin had nine points and 10 rebounds, and Samuelson had seven points and three rebounds.
6-20 is not a pretty record to have, but the Mystics are still a team with talent and flashes of great moments that still have an outside chance of clinching a playoff spot.
Ariel Atkins is having arguably her biggest year, given the circumstances of being on a revamped Mystics roster. She is averaging 15.7 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 3.6 assists per game (APG) and 1.5 steals per game (SPG). Samuelson is also in the middle of her best season, averaging 9.8 PPG, 2.9 RPG and 2.3 APG.
Stefanie Dolson went from spending last season as a reserve in New York to having her best season since her stint in Chicago. Dolson, who returned this season to play for the team that drafted her in 2014, is averaging 10.1 PPG, 5.0 RPG and 2.8 APG, while also shooting 48.1 percent from three-point range on an average of 4.2 three-point attempts.
The team has also received positive production from Jade Melbourne, who they acquired from the Seattle Storm days before the start of the regular season. She has seen an uptick in playing time: from 10.6 minutes per game (MPG) in 29 games last year, to 13.4 MPG in 23 games this year.
Melbourne is coming off winning a bronze medal with the Australian national team at the Paris Olympics and additionally was named the tournament’s Rising Star award winner. She had a standout game in her team’s quarterfinal victory over Serbia, finishing with 18 points, five assists, four rebounds and two steals in 33 minutes. Melbourne will only turn 22 years old when her birthday arrives on Sunday; she is still blossoming as a player in the WNBA, but she has proven her worth as a quality competitor and energetic presence in the league.
The Mystics also have two of the best rookies in the league; both have had a positive impact on the team. Vanloo, the 31-year-old guard who played internationally before arriving in the WNBA, is averaging 8.2 PPG and 5.0 APG.
Vanloo was named to the All-Second Team of the Olympic tournament for her efforts in helping guide a Belgian national team that narrowly missed out on obtaining a medal. Her best game of the tournament came in the bronze medal game loss to Australia: a double-double with 26 points and 11 rebounds.
Aaliyah Edwards, the sixth overall pick in the draft who also played for Canada at the Olympics, is averaging 8.7 PPG, 5.7 RPG and 0.9 blocks per game (BPG) this season. She is a solid interior presence, which had been needed during Austin’s absence. Edwards and Vanloo both have quality cases to make this year’s All-Rookie team.
This is a franchise that has had a rocky time finding its way back into the upper echelon of championship contention over the last few seasons. Ever since the Mystics won the championship in 2019, they have dealt with injuries and other circumstances that prevented players from wearing Mystics uniforms on the court.
Also, not only have they failed to win a playoff game since that 2019 championship, but they haven’t had a home playoff game in that time. Whether it’s being swept aside by tougher teams like the Liberty in 2023 and the Storm in 2022, or knocked out by a buzzer-beater by Shey Peddy in 2020, the postseason magic has not been in the air for Washington.
What also makes the Mystics an intriguing observation is what will happen during the offseason. They currently possess two first-round picks in the 2025 draft; will they try to get a player like Paige Bueckers, arguably the best player in college basketball, to reunite with Edwards? Do they look for another big to add to the team’s younger frontcourt players like Austin and Edwards?
Myisha Hines-Allen and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough are Washington’s only unrestricted free agents after this season. How much will the front office look into getting impact players in free agency? Also, what is the future of Elena Delle Donne, who is taking this season off from basketball; has she played her last game in a Mystics uniform?
The Mystics are a team that refuses to let any unfortunate circumstance negatively affect how they compete in games, especially against the top teams. 2024 may not have been the ideal season, but the future is bright for the franchise in Washington, D.C. 2025 may be the next, exciting step in their efforts to ascend back to the top of the league.
Stats as of August 16. Unless otherwise noted, stats courtesy of WNBA.com.