It’s do-or-die time for the Washington Mystics. The youngest squad in the WNBA faces a win-or-go-home matchup at home against superstar Angel Reese and the Atlanta Dream on Wednesday night.
The Mystics weren’t supposed to be this good this quickly. They heard the refrain throughout the regular season, as the youthful roster set a franchise record for wins en route to a 28-16 record.
Momentum steadily grew throughout the season. A plucky roster led by second-year All-Stars Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen proved it could keep up with the best teams in the league. A solid defense and a breakout campaign from center Shakira Austin — one of Washington’s few veterans — made the Mystics a popular watch in WNBA circles.
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But that was the regular season. A Game 1 loss to the Dream in their postseason opener Sunday served as a wake-up call for the Mystics’ many first-and-second-year players.
“Just getting rid of the nerves. Going out there and seeing what it looks like,” Austin said. “It’s the same basketball game we’ve been playing our whole lives. It’s just a bigger stage, a little more pressure. … We just have to shake off a little bit of the rust.”
Washington was defined not just by its youth, but by its joy throughout the campaign. Practices and games had an almost collegiate atmosphere, with designated time for players and coaches to joke around and deliver praise through shoutouts.
A playoff berth hasn’t killed that energy.
“It’s the joy of the ordinary moments. You don’t try to get too high, get too low,” coach Sydney Johnson said after Tuesday’s practice. “Coming in today, they’re happy to see each other, happy to work on the things we needed to correct.”
It’s kept the 52-year-old feeling young, as evidenced by his post-game locker room celebrations that the team posts on social media.
“That’s his way of reaching our young group. The energy we carry every day is pretty crazy,” Austin said. “Coach Sydney being able to connect with us and feed off our energy and create his own thing is just dope.”
Johnson hasn’t had a chance to bust out that kind of celebration in the postseason, though.
The playoffs have been a different beast. Every mistake becomes amplified. In Sunday’s Game 1 loss in Atlanta, a lopsided third quarter and 22 turnovers doomed the Mystics.
Johnson said part of the blame belonged to the officials. But his players looked inward.
“At the end of the day, the team that’s most knit together and can lean on each other is going to come out with success,” Austin said. “Being able to lean into that — I think last game we went away from that a little bit when it got hard — and carry the energy that we’ve had all year.”
“We’re a super close-knit team. We all have a lot of confidence in what we can do,” Citron said. “But I think just sticking together and not letting — obviously we’re frustrated — not letting that separate us.”
Now the Mystics have their backs against the ropes. Johnson’s group has to be adaptable. They can’t afford to turn the ball over 22 times, as they did in Game 1. They can’t afford to be outscored 29-12 in the third quarter, either.
“We learned a lot. [The Dream] played well. We had good stretches, but just not enough,” Johnson said. “[We learned] to stay focused on our game plan for 40 minutes.”
That means a focus on the defensive pressure that became an identity this year. Austin and Iriafen guard the paint for Washington as one of the toughest front-court duos in the WNBA. They have their hands full against Angel Reese, this year’s AP Defensive Player of the Year.
Austin, in particular, isn’t one to back down from a challenge. She and Reese exchanged “too small” celebrations and taunts throughout the series opener. Fouls were an issue for both sides, though. Iriafen played limited minutes due to early foul trouble.
“That’s what we do. We play with energy; we play with fight; we dominate in the paint,” Austin said. “Coming into Game 2, I just hope everyone understands — including the refs — that this is just part of our game.”
The stakes of a 1-0 deficit in a best-of-three series are unavoidable. It doesn’t scare the Mystics. Despite their youth, they claim to be battle-tested. The regular season saw late comebacks and more tight games than any other squad — including a 20-point comeback against the Dallas Wings and a four-overtime classic against the Portland Fire.
“Our entire season, we’ve done that. We’ve proved to ourselves that we know how to respond,” Citron said. “We just have full faith and belief in this team that we can do it.”
Wednesday’s game tips off at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night. If the Mystics win, they’d force a decisive Game 3 in Atlanta on Friday.
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