The Mystics committed too many turnovers in the second half, which forced them to come back from a 15 point deficit in the fourth quarter.
The Washington Mystics knew that coming into today’s two-game series against the Seattle Storm would have major playoff seeding implications. If they win today, they’ll have a shot to get home court advantage tomorrow with a win. If they lose, the Storm get the tiebreaker, and Washington’s chances of getting even a Top-4 seed would be much slimmer.
Unfortunately, the latter is what happened as the Mystics lost to the Storm, 82-77 on Saturday afternoon.
The beginning of the game at least showed that Washington started strong. Elena Delle Donne scored 12 of her 22 points in the first half, as the Mystics started the game with their trademark defense and held the Storm to just 28.6 percent shooting in the first quarter. Seattle was able to reclaim the lead after forcing Washington to get on a cold streak to finish the first half. Both teams ultimately were 35-all at halftime.
The third quarter was a more free flowing affair, but the Storm finished ahead 57-55 in the end, in part because the Mystics committed 5 turnovers. Things continued to go south as the Storm scored 13 unanswered points to get a 70-55 lead midway in the fourth. The Mystics were able to get the lead down to one with 22 seconds remaining after Alysha Clark made a clutch three, but weren’t able to capitalize on a potential go-ahead opportunity. Seattle was able to get some breathing room with Breanna Stewart making her free throws. She led Seattle with 18 points and Jewell Loyd added 17 more.
While the finish wasn’t what we wanted, let’s play Clark’s three one more time below.
AC (@Alysha_Clark) MAKES IT A 1-PT GAME WITH 22.8 TO GO
Both teams fighting for a spot in the playoffs on ESPN pic.twitter.com/RwNrjvQkw9
— WNBA (@WNBA) July 30, 2022
The Mystics have one more game against the Storm tomorrow at 3 p.m. ET.