Winners of three straight games, the Washington Mystics will aim to keep rolling Wednesday night when they host the league-leading Minnesota Lynx.
The Mystics (8-7) have moved up to eighth place in the WNBA standings with this winning streak, the most recent victory coming at Minnesota (13-4) on Sunday.
The Mystics outscored the Lynx 28-19 in the fourth quarter to earn an 84-79 win, powered by 21 points from Sonia Citron and 17 points from Kiki Iriafen.
For the Lynx, that loss to Washington snapped their own three-game win streak, but Cheryl Reeve’s side is still at the top of the standings with a half-game edge over the Las Vegas Aces and Atlanta Dream as of Tuesday.
“(We gave up) easy baskets in the paint, and then our offense, just having people wide open and not passing,” Reeve said. “We’re not going to be a team that passes the least in the league, and that’s what we’re at right now, and so maybe it takes a game like this to address it.”
Minnesota shot just 4 of 21 from 3-point land in the loss, their lowest percentage of the season at a 19% clip. The Lynx remained strong defensively, forcing 18 turnovers and allowing zero fastbreak points, but the Mystics made up ground by knocking down seven 3-pointers and 21 free throws.
The Lynx are still playing without their best player, five-time all-star and former Defensive Player of the Year Napheesa Collier. Reeve said Sunday that Collier remains weeks away from fully participating with the team after offseason ankle surgery.
In Collier’s absence, though, the Lynx have gotten MVP-caliber play from rookie Olivia Miles, the No. 2 overall pick out of TCU. She’s averaging 18.5 points, 5.6 assists and 4.9 rebounds per game while shooting 53.8% from the floor and 92% on free throws. Miles ranks second in the WNBA in win shares and fourth in defensive rating.
Before transferring to TCU, Miles was teammates with Citron for three seasons at Notre Dame. The second-year guard leads the Mystics in scoring with 17.6 points per game and is fourth in the WNBA in free throws made per game with 5.8. During Washington’s three-game win streak, Citron is averaging 21 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists. She was recently named Eastern Conference Player of the Week.
“Her scoring is something that we’re going to lean on always. I love the advances that she’s made in terms of playmaking for others,” Mystics coach Sydney Johnson said of Citron recently. “That’s not something that we necessarily saw early last year, and now we’re seeing her grow and blossom.”
–Field Level Media
