Amid an inconsistent start to the season, the Washington Mystics and head coach Sydney Johnson can sense that improvements are being made. The next challenge for Washington will be to post its first set of consecutive victories as it travels to College Park, Ga. to face the Atlanta Dream on Saturday.
After dropping three of its previous four outings, Washington (4-4) is coming off a convincing 90-72 win over the Chicago Sky on Tuesday. The Mystics are averaging 21 assists across their last three games, which Johnson sees as a sign of growth among his youthful group.
“What I love is that this young team is really trending in the right direction in terms of sharing the ball,” Johnson said. “They’re appreciating that teams are good at this level and you can’t do it alone. In terms of sharing the basketball, especially these last three games, it really sticks out. I appreciate how they’re playing and making sure they’re playing together.”
Washington will be without leading scorer Sonia Citron (17.7 points per game) for the second straight game as the 22-year-old deals with a left foot sprain. Shakira Austin is averaging a career-best 17.1 points and 8.6 rebounds per contest, while Kiki Iriafen chips in 15 points and 10.5 rebounds per game.
Atlanta (6-3) is looking to bounce back from its lowest scoring-output of the year. The Dream mustered just 29 first-half points en route to an 83-71 road loss against the Indiana Fever on Thursday.
Second-year head coach Karl Smesko’s team still sits atop the Eastern Conference, but doesn’t want to allow a poor shooting night to linger into the weekend.
“Sometimes when you’re not shooting it well or you don’t finish around the rim, you let it affect other parts of the game,” Smesko said. “That’s something you can’t afford to do. You can’t have letdowns, even for a couple minutes. … We’re just going to have to get better and I think we will.”
Allisha Gray’s 20.2 points per game lead the team and rank third in the league, while Rhyne Howard adds 17.9 points and newcomer Angel Reese is averaging 12.8 points and a league-leading 11.1 rebounds per outing.
The Dream took three of four in the series last season.
–Field Level Media
