Washington earned its franchise-best 28th regular season win and secured the No. 5 seed for the playoffs.
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The Washington Mystics dominated nearly all of Thursday. Then their leader departed — and a near-collapse ensued.
Team-leading scorer Shakira Austin landed hard on her back in the fourth quarter while attempting a shot she was fouled on. The center was able to get up and shoot the free throws, but checked out of the game shortly after to a thunderous applause from Capital One Arena. The Mystics held a 14-point lead.
They then allowed Chicago to trim their lead to four with less than a minute remaining. But Kiki Iriafen converted a key layup after a timeout, and Washington held on to beat the Sky, 101-93.
“We certainly bent there,” Coach Sydney Johnson said. “We did just enough, and we got the 28th win, which isn’t too bad for this group.”
With the victory in their final regular season game and a loss by the Indiana Fever to the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx, the Mystics (28-16) secured the No. 5 seed. They’ll face the Atlanta Dream in the first round, eyeing a first postseason win since a championship-clinching one over the Connecticut Sun in the 2019 finals. Since then, Washington is 0-5 in playoff games.
Johnson’s team will almost certainly need Austin healthy to advance. He didn’t have an update on the 26-year-old after the game, but said he’s “expecting that she’ll be with us.”
Austin struggled Thursday. She failed to convert a field goal for the first time this season, scoring just seven points.
But Austin did notch five assists. And every other Mystics starter scored in double figures.
“She was focusing on her teammates,” guard Sonia Citron said. “That’s what she brought today.”
Michaela Onyenwere and Iriafen each scored eight points in the opening quarter to match the Sky’s (16-28) total. The pair combined for 32 total, while Citron poured in a game-high 21 points.
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Johnson felt the Sky played “carefree” in a second half in which they scored 59 points — after amassing just 34 in a lopsided opening 20 minutes. They capitalized off Mystics turnovers, shot well from beyond the arc and were efficient at the rim, he thought.
Chicago finished with seven turnovers to Washington’s 14, while drilling eight three-pointers despite a slow start. A dominant rebounding effort — Washington won the battle on the glass, 44-27 — helped atone for the miscues.
The Mystics on Tuesday broke the WNBA’s single-season team rebounding record, though they were out-rebounded for just the fourth time this season. Johnson said pregame a goal for his team Thursday was re-establishing its rebounding dominance.
“It’s what we expect from ourselves,” Onyenwere said. “Something that we’re going to need in the playoffs for sure. Rebounds win games. They win championships.”
Austin, Iriafen and backup rookie center Lauren Betts combined for 34 rebounds.
The three each played a role in a stifling defensive first half for a Mystics team that entered surrendering the second-fewest points per game in the WNBA.
Midway through the first quarter, the 6-foot-1 Citron emphatically blocked Sky guard Sydney Taylor’s three-pointer. Citron then converted a layup to extend Washington’s lead to five — which ballooned to 15 at the end of the frame, during which Chicago shot 35 percent. It failed to convert a three-pointer in the first quarter.
Johnson feels Washington thrives through its “possession defense.”
“I really trust this group to be in great position to not gamble and not get into disadvantaged situations,” he said pregame. “We don’t want to be in five-on-fours, four-on-threes, two-on-ones … we’re going to make you take a tough shot, and we’re going to corral that rebound.”
Austin notched a steal in the second quarter, leading to a transition score from Citron after a ball fake in the paint. Iriafen later swatted a shot at the end of the frame before Chicago committed an eight-second violation — emblematic of Washington’s first-half defense.
The second half wasn’t the same. Johnson admitted his team endured a “lull.”
But even with a late scare, the crowd saw Washington secure a franchise-best 28th regular season win in just its second season under Johnson, who has garnered national attention as a leading coach of the year candidate.
He was asked pregame about the opportunity to receive the honor. But the coach didn’t talk quite as long about himself as he did Austin — whom he raved is a top-10 player and should make an all-WNBA team.
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“Coach of the year, I’ll let you guys worry about that,” Johnson said.
