The Washington Mystics fell just short of earning the postseason double-bye they were aiming for, but they’re still in a comfortable spot as the No. 3 seed in the WNBA playoffs.
The Mystics will play their second-round game Thursday at 6:30 p.m. against an opponent to be determined by the outcome of Tuesday’s first round. The game will be televised on ESPN2.
The teams that advance are reseeded between rounds, not unlike the wild card round winners in the NFL playoffs. As the third seed, Washington will host the lower-seeded team to advance Tuesday, which will be the Los Angeles Sparks, Minnesota Lynx or Dallas Wings.
The Seattle Storm and Atlanta Dream are the top two seeds who get to rest up for the league semifinals. The full bracket is available here.
The WNBA playoffs take the eight best teams regardless of conference and utilize two win-or-go-home rounds before the best-of-five semifinals and finals. If the Mystics win Thursday, they will begin a five-game series with the Dream the following Sunday.
The Mystics lost their regular season finale Sunday to the Lynx, snapping Washington’s eight-game winning streak.
Thursday’s game, and any future home games in the playoffs, will be contested at the Charles E. Smith Center on the campus of George Washington University as Capital One Arena undergoes further renovations.
The highlight of Tuesday’s first round is expected to be Minnesota at Los Angeles, the two teams’ third straight year to meet in the postseason.
“Minnesota is a good team. You can throw records out the window right now,” Sparks coach Brian Agler told The Associated Press. “They have two of the elite offensive players in the league, one inside and one outside, they have veteran savviness, tough minded championship pedigree and we have played them enough, over 20 times in three years, so we know each other pretty well.”
Phoenix will host Dallas, which earned the final playoff spot Friday, in the other first-round elimination game.
Seattle and Atlanta earned byes to the semifinals by finishing first and second. The Dream clinched the No. 2 spot on the final day of the regular season. Washington and Connecticut earned first-round byes.
Whoever wins the opening round games in Los Angeles and Phoenix will have to head east to play second round games on Thursday. The WNBA doesn’t allow teams to charter, so the winners will have to fly commercial on Wednesday to Washington and Connecticut.
⦁ This article was based in part on wire service reports.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.