The two best teams in the WNBA squared off for the third time in this young season. Rather than producing a close game, it was a slaughter.
The Mystics dominated the Connecticut Sun 102-59 Saturday afternoon — the largest margin of victory in franchise history — and moved into first place in the league.
Elena Delle Donne led with 19 points and 10 rebounds, Ariel Atkins scored 15 points and Kristi Toliver added 14. The Mystics shot 53.1% from the floor and 43.3% from 3-point range, while the Sun only mustered 30.1% and 25% from three.
Washington (9-3) has now won five games in a row, while Connecticut (9-4) dropped its third straight.
The 43-point win also tied for fourth-largest margin of victory in WNBA history. The Mystics’ average point differential this season grew to an unheard-of 13.7 points.
Mystics coach Mike Thibault, almost stunned by how lopsided the game was, said his team still could find some takeaways.
“I think there’s a lot to take out of it, because No. 1, it’s what we’ve been trying to find — the balance of great defense and good offense,” Thibault said. “And everything you could ask for in a game, we did today. We shared the basketball, we had a lot of assists, we shot the ball well. Our bench played great. We had six players, I think, in double figures, and we defended.”
Washington wasted no time, leaping out to a 16-5 advantage in the first five minutes. Delle Donne scored on back-to-back difficult jumpers, one a turn-around in the post and the next with a sidestep move to shake her defender. The Mystics’ star also beat the first-quarter buzzer to make it 29-15 at the first break.
The Mystics’ defense stifled most of Connecticut’s players other than center Jonquel Jones, who finished with 15 points after dropping 24 on Washington in their previous meeting.
When most of the Mystics’ starters reunited on the floor in the middle of the second quarter, they used a 12-2 run to get ahead 54-27 and ultimately take a 56-30 halftime lead. On consecutive possessions, Ariel Atkins hit an open 3-pointer from the right corner, and Toliver drew a foul on a long jumper to add three more.
The Mystics’ lead grew to 33 by third quarter’s end, as they remained precise offensively while forcing the Sun into bricks in situations where their shots should have been relatively easy. Late in the frame, Tianna Hawkins scored eight straight Mystics points, part of a helpful 11 minutes on the floor while Delle Donne and others rested.
To take their foot off the gas, if only a hair, the Mystics subbed in reserves Myisha Hines-Allen and Shey Peddy in the fourth quarter. Yet Washington’s lead never stopped growing. Hawkins (12 points), Aerial Powers (13) and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough (11) all reached double-figures coming off the bench, and the Sun could never respond, even in the fourth.
“I kept thinking that they would keep coming back and keep coming back, and we didn’t let up at all,” Thibault said. “I think that once we could get some run-outs and we started — I mean, they didn’t even know who to lock down at first because everybody was involved in the offense. When you can do that, it’s hard to lock in on stopping one player.”
Connecticut first beat Washington 84-69 in the Mystics’ first game of the season — in which Delle Donne sat out with a jammed knee and Toliver left early with a leg injury. The Sun then edged out the Mystics 83-75 on June 11. Both games were played at Connecticut.
Hawkins said there was “most definitely” an element of revenge for her team as they entered Saturday’s game. Taking over first place doesn’t feel so bad, either.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Hawkins said, “but we’re nowhere (near) finished.”
The Mystics go back on the road next week with games at Las Vegas and Los Angeles before their next home game — the only one this season at Capital One Arena — July 10 against the Phoenix Mercury.
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