After a win on Thursday against the A’ja Wilson-less Las Vegas Aces, the Washington Mystics have a chance to hold a winning record for the first time since May.
The Mystics are 10-10 as they prepare to visit the Seattle Storm on Sunday and could break .500 for the first time since they were 2-1 following a May 10 loss to the Golden State Valkyries.
Their latest win, 70-68 over Las Vegas, showed toughness.
The Mystics had only 27 points at halftime, before they notched 43 in the second half.
“We had to, at halftime, try to adjust a little bit of our looks, and get a little bit more movement,” Mystics head coach Sydney Johnson said. “And then kind of let those things that we thought might be there open up.”
With 3:45 remaining in the game, the Mystics trailed 66-58 before rattling off a 12-2 run to wrestle away the win.
Brittney Sykes, Washington’s leading scorer (17.5 points per game), had a return to form with 18 points. In her previous four games, the guard was averaging eight points a contest on sub-30-percent shooting from the field.
The team will need a similar showing from their go-to scorer, and likely a better start, against a solid Storm squad.
Seattle (13-8) holds opponents to the third-fewest points per game in the league (79.2). Offensively, the Storm are one of the most efficient offensive teams, ranking second in field goal percentage (45.6) and tied for third in three-point percentage (34.5).
Veteran guard Skylar Diggins helms the offense, pacing the squad with 18.2 points and 5.9 assists per game on a team-best 40.5 percent from 3-point range.
The Storm are unlikely to have a poor shooting night, though they have been shaky in their last five games.
Seattle went 3-2 in that span, but their losses were concerning. The Storm suffered an 84-57 rout on June 29 at the hands of the Valkyries and shot 27 percent from the field. On July 9, they were outscored 27-9 in the fourth quarter in a 93-83 loss to the woeful Connecticut Sun. Seattle was 3-of-14 shooting with six turnovers in the final quarter.
“I’m glad we were able to get another great competitive game,” Seattle forward Nneka Ogwumike said after the victory in the rematch. “We needed this type of game. We needed to be able to grind things out and we needed to be able to keep getting stops even if the shots aren’t going in.”
This is the first matchup between these two teams this season. The Storm went 3-1 against Washington last season.
–Field Level Media
