For the second straight year, the Washington Mystics have reached the WNBA Finals.
This time around, they appear much better equipped to handle the last, most difficult hurdle on the way to the championship they covet.
The Seattle Storm swept the Mystics last year in Washington’s first-ever Finals appearance. Elena Delle Donne wasn’t close to 100% healthy, the team lacked scoring depth and, ultimately, no one in the league could match the Storm’s talent.
But this year, the Mystics have been the WNBA’s standard-bearer for by and large the entire season. Delle Donne powered her way to an MVP award, and after a year away from the WNBA Emma Meesseman returned to the fold to give the Mystics the X-factor they lacked.
Now, the No. 1 Mystics will take on the No. 2 Connecticut Sun in the Finals, starting with Game 1 Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Entertainment and Sports Arena.
The Mystics beat the fourth-seeded Las Vegas Aces 94-90 Tuesday to win their semifinal series in four games. Delle Donne scored 25 points, while Meesseman netted 22 on 9 of 14 shooting and 4 of 4 from the 3-point arc. Offensively they played well in space, and defensively they held one of the Aces’ best players, A’ja Wilson, to four points.
Meesseman was a starter for much of the series and posted 27- and 30-point games in Games 1 and 2. But with guard Kristi Toliver finally healthy enough to move from bench contributor to starter for Game 4, Meesseman switched back to a supporting role off the bench and still managed to have a strong game.
“I’m looking at the box score, I’m looking at four players in double figures, the things we did, Emma Meesseman accepting her role of changing the lineup today to go back to our lineup that we started the season with,” coach Mike Thibault said. “I thought we would get more punch-off out of our bench today, match-ups would work a little better. Not only did she accept her role but she excelled at it.”
Connecticut beat the Mystics two out of three times during the regular season, but in their most recent matchup on June 29, the Mystics rang up a 102-59 win, one of the most lopsided results in league history.
The analytics say the Mystics have the best offense the WNBA has seen. Both their offensive rating of 115.9 and their 1.128 points per possession set league records. A few players have been cold during the postseason so far, but besides Delle Donne and Meesseman, Natasha Cloud, Aerial Powers and at times LaToya Sanders have made tough shots or assists in clutch moments.
Connecticut will counter with Jonquel Jones, their 6-foot-6 center and leading scorer and rebounder. The Mystics don’t have anyone quite that size to guard her, but Jones won’t pose as unique a problem inside as, say, the Aces’ Liz Cambage, who averaged 23.8 points per game in the semifinals.
Cloud said the Sun are “a team full of people that, at any moment, they can put up 30” points. But she was not short of confidence that the Mystics were ready to achieve the goal they’ve chased for years, saying the core of the roster has learned from the adversity it’s faced in the last few seasons.
“We’ve grown together, but the biggest thing has been our relationships off the court have translated on the court,” Cloud said. “You see how much fun we have and how much we enjoy when others thrive and do well. This is what separates us. We’re really a family. Our relationships off the court have made our relationships on the court much better.”
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