Washington goes on their first west coast road trip early in the 2024 WNBA regular season. At least the Mystics should be in a better position to win.

The Washington Mystics play the Los Angeles Sparks Tuesday night. Let’s get to the preview.

Game Info

When: Tuesday, May 21 at 10 p.m. ET

Where: Walter Pyramid, Long Beach, CA

How to Watch: Monumental Sports Network

Injuries

Mystics: Brittney Sykes (Day-to-Day, left ankle), Shakira Austin (Probable, Left hip, Injury management)

Storm: Rae Burrell (Day-to-Day, illness), Azura Stevens (Out)

Pregame notes

First, as you saw in the game info above, the Mystics are playing in Long Beach, not LA at the Crypto.com Arena. That’s because of renovations that will happen over the Sparks’ first five home games of the 2024 season.

Anyway, the Mystics’ season hasn’t quite started on the right foot, with two losses in the preseason and three more throughout the beginning of the season. In their fourth game, the Mystics meet another team that has underachieved so far, the Seattle Storm. The Storm have also lost their first two games of the season.

Though Washington hasn’t won a game yet, they haven’t been blown out yet either in the final score. Also, the Mystics were missing in their last game both Shakira Austin and Brittney Sykes. Leading, for instance, to Julie Vanloo getting a starting role and scoring 5 points in 28 minutes in her last game in an underwhelming performance.

A bright point: Karlie Samuelson had a standout performance a couple nights ago in the second game of the season, against the Sun, with 18 points in just 8 shots, knocking down 4-of-5 from deep. In the last game against the Storm in Seattle she knocked down 3-from-6 from deep. Another bright spot: Ariel Atkins had 19 points in the last game.

Let’s see how the Mystics bounce back in this Tuesday evening game.