The Washington Mystics hope to find consistency amid their inconsistency when they seek to rebound from a poor offensive performance in the opener of a two-game sequence against the streaking Golden State Valkyries on Saturday night in San Francisco.
The clubs met last Monday in the nation’s capital, where the Mystics, riding the momentum of a two-game winning streak, were suffocated by the Golden State defense in a 62-49 Valkyries win.
If there was a positive in the defeat, it was that Washington was able to bounce back with a pair of impressive wins over the Seattle Storm and Toronto Tempo, averaging 81.5 points in the victories.
But that was followed by another clunker — a 75-56 home loss Thursday to the expansion Portland Fire, the fourth time in the last 12 games that Washington has been held to 64 points or fewer.
The good news? The Mystics responded with at least two consecutive wins the previous three times it occurred.
Washington’s season-low point total against the Valkyries occurred while All-Star Sonia Citron sat out with a sore right knee. She returned to score 19 points in the win over the Storm but has since shot just 3-for-14 and totaled 10 points in the Mystics’ last two contests.
A second-year player in the league, Citron insists a poor performance or two won’t impact the next game.
“My teammates, my coaches all know what I can do, and they want me to be myself and do the things that I can do,” she expressed to the media. “So not being scared to do that and just realizing that when I play scared or timid, that’s hurting my team. So just be aggressive. I know that my team, my teammates and coaches all have my back.”
The Mystics (12-11) will need to be firing on all cylinders against the Valkyries (18-7), who have returned home after completing a 5-0 Eastern swing that ran their overall winning streak to eight games.
Golden State coach Natalie Nakase boasted after Wednesday’s 88-75 win at Indiana that the trip was a positive for her team in more than just the standings.
“We’re getting closer and closer together,” he told reporters. “We used this road trip to actually bond and become tighter-knit, because when you’re on the road, you don’t really have your own schedule. You do everything together. We had a ton of fun.”
–Field Level Media
