Mystics

Mystics https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/mystics Mystics en-US Mon, 26 Oct 2026 13:18:28 GMT Mystics’ Shakira Austin Named to All-WNBA Second Team https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/mystics/mystics-shakira-austin-all-wnba Alex Schiffer The veteran center is the franchise’s first player since 2021 to earn all-league honors. Mon, 26 Oct 2026 13:18:28 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/mystics/mystics-shakira-austin-all-wnba Mystics Shakira Austin

Mystics center Shakira Austin averaged 17 points and 9.5 rebounds this season. (Daniel Kucin Jr./AP)

Mystics center Shakira Austin continues to rack up honors after a career season.

On Saturday, Austin was named to the All-WNBA second team after a season in which she averaged 17 points and 9.5 rebounds. Austin, a Fredericksburg, Virginia, native, shot 48% from the field and led the team in total points, rebounds and blocks. She was also named to the WNBA’s All-Defensive first team on Oct. 15.

She finished fourth in voting for Defensive Player of the Year (won by Angel Reese) and ninth in MVP voting. Aces star A’ja Wilson was named MVP for a record fifth time and became the first player to win the honor in three consecutive seasons.

Austin, 26, is the seventh player in Mystics franchise history to be named to an all-league team and the first since Tina Charles in 2021. This season, she became the first Washington player and just the seventh player in WNBA history to post a 25-game streak of at least 10 points and five or more rebounds.

The Mystics selected Austin third overall out of Mississippi in 2022. Austin, who graduated from Riverdale Baptist School in Maryland, led Washington to its best season in years. The team finished the regular season with a 28–16 record and earned the fifth seed in the WNBA playoffs before losing to the Atlanta Dream in the first round. It was the organization’s first postseason berth since 2023 and highest regular season win total since 2019.]]> After Their Playoff Loss, the Mystics Gathered for a Late-Night ‘Last Hoorah’ https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/mystics-offseason-team-gathering Emma Baccellieri “It was just wanting to have one more moment with the same girls,” before they all dispersed for the offseason. Sat, 03 Oct 2026 11:00:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/mystics-offseason-team-gathering Mystics End of Season

Lauren Betts, Michaela Onyenwere and the rest of the Mystics enter the offseason with hope for a promising future. (Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via AP)

After their season came to a quiet, unsatisfying end in the first round of the playoffs Wednesday night, the Mystics lingered in the locker room.

They had gone through all of their usual postgame tasks. Head coach Sydney Johnson told them to be proud of what they had accomplished this year. They fulfilled their media obligations and showered and changed. It was soon time for the players to leave the building.

But they were not quite ready to leave each other.

So they kept the night going. Point guard Georgia Amoore volunteered her place. If this was the final day of the season for the 2026 Mystics, they would make tomorrow wait as long as it possibly could. The group all piled into Amoore’s apartment. They spent the next few hours there.

“Just a last hoorah,” forward Kiki Iriafen said. “We just hung out and talked and reminisced on the season.”

This historically young roster grew extremely close over the course of the season. Many teams speak about togetherness and love and sisterhood. Few use the aftermath of a tough playoff loss for a bittersweet last shot at a late-night hangout session. The players discussed the game they had just played, of course, because it was hard to talk about anything else at first. (The No. 4 Dream had swept the No. 5 Mystics with a pair of bruising losses.) But they soon found themselves discussing far more.

“It was really fun,” Amoore said. “First of all, let’s digest this game. But then, you know when you just get delirious, and everything’s funny, and you reflect on the randomest moments?... It was just a cute little kumbaya, to be like, Yo, let’s just let it all out.”

There is considerable focus on the future around here. Washington has a strong, young core, with a guaranteed lottery pick in the upcoming draft and plenty of salary cap space, too. This playoff loss is supposed to be only the beginning for this group. Everyone from national analysts to their own coaching staff has talked about this week as the start of something much bigger for this franchise.

But it was still an ending.

“We just have such a close group, and I feel like we really all love each other so much and love playing with each other. It was rough, just thinking, you know, Who knows what the team will look like next year?” said rookie center Lauren Betts. “It was just wanting to have one more moment with the same girls. It was such a nice little goodbye for all of us.”

Chances are high that many of those players will still be here when training camp rolls around in April. The Mystics’ only unrestricted free agent is veteran Betnijah Laney-Hamilton; a dramatic roster shakeup is unlikely. This core is expected to stay in place. But they hope they will be slightly different versions of themselves when they return to D.C.

Amoore will play this offseason in her native Australia. Much of this year was spent mentally grappling with the continued recovery from a torn ACL: Even though she had been cleared to get back on the floor months ago, she did not feel completely herself physically until fairly recently, she said. Her last offseason focused on making a return to play. This offseason will be focused on making what she calls a “Return to G.”

“I’ll have a lot of time to practice, to individually work out,” she said. “To get back to that Georgia Amoore that I’m familiar with.”

Iriafen has no plans to play elsewhere but has big plans for training and recovery: “I know that there’s another level that I can tap into and become an even better player.” Betts will play in Turkey.

Two of the Mystics’ biggest talents, Sonia Citron and Shakira Austin, will play in the Miami-based three-on-three league Unrivaled that attracts many WNBA players.

“I want to use Unrivaled to get better as a player,” said Citron, who has been an All-Star in both of her seasons with the Mystics. “Unrivaled is a great atmosphere for that. … The three-on-three setting, I think, is just really a great place to get better individually.”

Yet before they scattered for all of that offseason work, they shared the final hours of their season together. They will remember the loss. But they will remember what they did afterward, too.

“It’s having moments like that,” Amoore said. “Going into the offseason, that’s what you remember.”
]]> The Mystics’ Championship Window Is Now Open https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/mystics-championship-contenders-offseason-2027 Dave Sheinin Even after a tough playoff exit, Washington is set up to contend for a title. “We want to be that team — next year, the year after,” coach Sydney Johnson says. Thu, 01 Oct 2026 14:01:52 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/mystics-championship-contenders-offseason-2027 Shakira Austin Lauren Betts

Shakira Austin and Lauren Betts are just two of the team's key building blocks as it enters the offseason. (Colin Hubbard/AP)

At the end of a season of development and growth, when the impossibly youthful and joyful Washington Mystics learned to crawl, then walk, then run together, there was one more new experience to navigate, one last lesson to learn: how to say goodbye to something you never imagined ending.

After the final buzzer sounded Wednesday night at CareFirst Arena and their 93-75 loss to the Atlanta Dream was in the books, ending the Mystics’ season in the first round of the WNBA playoffs, Washington’s players staggered toward midcourt for a brief huddle, then repaired to their locker room to bid farewell to a season their coach would later call “magical” — and to each other.

In those raw moments, there was no consoling Shakira Austin, after she had gone hip to hip and elbow to sharp elbow with Atlanta’s Angel Reese for the previous two-plus hours and gotten the worse of it, with talk of how the Mystics had been playing with house money anyway. There was no solace for Kiki Iriafen in the fact the Mystics had arrived at an elite level ahead of schedule, altering the franchise’s trajectory. There was no silver lining for Sonia Citron in being reminded that the Mystics’ young core, of which she is an essential piece, is the envy of the league.

All there was, was emptiness.

“I get emotional,” Citron said, pausing to collect herself. “We have something special here. We love each other. We have fun. We never lose our joy. That’s super special. I don’t think that’s everywhere. And I’m just grateful.”
Sonia Citron (4209x2806, AR: 1.50)But even as they scatter to their home bases, many of them with domestic or overseas playing opportunities come this winter, these Mystics may at some point allow themselves the grace to step back and ponder both what they accomplished in 2026 and how they set up this franchise for even bigger things in future seasons.

“We can’t take this year for granted,” coach Sydney Johnson said. “We have to understand how we got here, and we have to recreate it and add to it. There’s only going to be one team that holds up the trophy, and we want to be that team — next year, the year after. That’s what we’re working for.”

The Mystics were not only the youngest team in the WNBA this season, but (at least until a late-season roster shuffle) the second-youngest in the history of the league, and later the youngest team ever to make the playoffs. At times Wednesday night, they deployed a lineup made up entirely of first- and second-year players.

“I don’t even recognize this team,” Johnson said. “Every single player has gotten better. They’re a different player than they were four or five months ago. And the youth of this team — to understand how we’re trying to win, it came so quickly.”

Even as the rest of the league took note of the Mystics’ talent — which included six first-round picks from the past two drafts — few expected them to make much noise in 2026. The WNBA’s own preseason power rankings had them ranked 12th in the 15-team league; ESPN’s had them 11th.

But after reaching mid-July with a .500 record, the Mystics went 16-4 the rest of the way to seize the fifth seed in the WNBA playoffs. Other teams marveled at the way they played on a nightly basis — with both extraordinary physicality in the paint (they led the league in rebounding by a healthy margin) and extraordinary chemistry on the bench and in the locker room.

“They’re really well-coached,” Dream coach Karl Smesko said. “They’re obviously very physical. And… they look like they have fun playing together. They got better in each part of the season that went by.”

This was supposed to be the year the Mystics’ rebuild reached and possibly turned the corner. Instead, it took that corner like a stock-car racer and accelerated down the straightaway — a sooner-than-expected arrival that now brings them to the familiar crossroads that confronts franchises when they reach the other side: Now what?

By accomplishing what they did this season, the Mystics have thrown open their championship window, and the organization has both the justification and the wherewithal to go big this offseason. At the least, there will almost certainly be one major addition, courtesy of the Chicago Sky.

In February 2025, the Mystics traded veteran guard Ariel Atkins to the Sky for a 2025 first-round draft pick (which became Citron), as well as a swap of first-round picks in 2026. That means the Mystics, instead of picking at the back of the pack based on their 2026 seeding, will get the Sky’s lottery pick, which, owing to the Sky’s 16-28 record (tied for 10th in the standings), could be anywhere from first to fifth in a draft deep with high-level talent — putting them in position to take someone like USC’s JuJu Watkins, Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo or Madison Booker of Texas.

Free agency provides another, more expensive pathway, though the Mystics’ plethora of players on their rookie contracts affords them the luxury to spend big. What do the Mystics need from a roster-construction standpoint to take the next step in 2027 and beyond?

They will almost certainly aim to get better at point guard, whether that means trusting they can get more out of Georgia Amoore — a first-round pick in 2025 who missed all of that season with an ACL tear and thus played this season as a rookie — or looking outside. They could also use a guard or wing with a deadly three-point shot (having taken the fewest three-point attempts in the league this season).

Among the big names on the list of unrestricted free agents who could fit either or both criteria: Indiana’s Kelsey Mitchell, Phoenix’s Kelsey Plum or Jackie Young of the Las Vegas Aces, who, combined, own 15 All-Star nods and five WNBA titles. Meantime, the Mystics have just one unrestricted free agent: veteran wing Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, whom they picked up on a waiver claim in August.

Chemistry and culture are core philosophies of Monumental Basketball, the parent company for both the Mystics and Washington Wizards, and any potential acquisitions, especially one that might alter the molecular makeup of the locker room culture, will almost certainly be viewed through that lens.

The 2026 Mystics were as close-knit a team as you are likely to see — equal parts joy, love and toughness — and keeping that feeling intact while adding game-changing talent will be a challenge for the team’s brain trust, which, in the absence of a general manager, includes Monumental Senior Vice President John Thompson III, Monumental President Michael Winger and Johnson.

“For me to see them love and care for each other on and off the court is everything I could ask for,” Johnson said of his 2026 Mystics. “And we won games. This wasn’t some ‘Kumbaya’ thing going on. … We won games and played for each other. And were selfless and joyful. And I want the world to know, that’s how we roll in D.C. And you can win. So next year, we’re going to come back stronger and want more, but we’re also going to hold to our culture, which is toughness, togetherness and a little bit of love sprinkled in there.”]]> The Mystics' Season Is Over, But They're Just Getting Started https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/mystics-dream-game-2-playoffs Emma Baccellieri Washington, which lost to Atlanta Wednesday to be eliminated from the WNBA playoffs, feels very optimistic about the future. Thu, 01 Oct 2026 01:17:20 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/mystics-dream-game-2-playoffs

Kiki Iriafen is part of a promising young core for Washington. (Stephanie Scarbrough/AP)

Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen have shared nearly everything in their young pro careers.

They’ve navigated the league as a twin set from the moment the Mystics selected Citron at No. 3 in the 2025 WNBA draft and Iriafen at No. 4: Wherever one goes, the other is never far behind, it seems.

They were named All-Stars together as rookies and then again together as sophomores. They were both left off the Team USA roster for the 2026 FIBA Basketball World Cup, then both called on as injury replacements, with both making the same unexpected flight to Berlin. They come as a package deal. While Citron’s and Iriafen’s jerseys are both popular at CareFirst Arena, so is a shirt that reads “Kitron,” their joint nickname: There are some fans who cannot bear to rep one without the other.

They have shared every bit of their experience with the Mystics, every win and loss and practice and bus ride over the last two seasons, and they shared a bit more on Wednesday. Citron and Iriafen lost their first playoff series. They walked into the news conference quiet and downcast but, as ever, together.

“It doesn’t feel real,” Iriafen said. “I feel like I’m coming in tomorrow, we’re going to practice, we’re going to play again on Friday. But that’s not true.”

They had been on a magical ride this season. The Mystics were not expected to contend for a postseason spot this year. They instead became the youngest playoff team in the history of the WNBA. Washington set a franchise record for wins and cruised into the postseason as the No. 5 seed. And then, within the space of a few days, it was over.

In their best-of-three series against the Dream, they were plagued by turnovers and consistently struggled to find good looks. A veteran-heavy Atlanta team was simply too much for this young Washington roster. (Citron and Iriafen were among the nine players on the team making their playoff debuts in this series.) After losing by 15 in Game 1, they fell by double digits again in Game 2, with a final score of 93-75.

That should qualify as a soundly demoralizing series loss. (Washington trailed for the entirety of Game 2.) But as the Mystics spoke about their disappointment with the loss on Wednesday, they could not help but speak about their joy from this season and their pride in each other. There is more hope for this franchise now than has been the case in years.

“We have such an incredible group of girls,” Citron said. “Coach was talking about it in the locker room: We have something special here.”

They do. An early playoff exit does not change the fact that Washington’s rebuild is tracking far ahead of schedule. The franchise has a solid foundation with flexibility to keep adding. D.C.’s young core is arguably the best in the WNBA. And that starts with Citron and Iriafen.

While the Mystics struggled broadly in this series, Citron and Iriafen generally did not. The former led them in scoring in both games — becoming the youngest WNBA player ever to record back-to-back playoff games with 25 points or more — and proved that she could assert herself more when needed. The latter served as the engine of the Mystics’ aggressive rebounding effort and kept her poise through foul trouble in Game 1. Citron and Iriafen have been the steadiest, most cohesive performers for the Mystics over the past two years, and that held true into their first postseason appearance.

The series loss highlighted the need for some more experienced backcourt talent in D.C. (Of note: Should the Mystics decide to swing big this offseason, they will have plenty of cap space, and All-Star veteran guards like Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young and Kelsey Mitchell will all be available in free agency.) They will also have a lottery pick in a loaded draft. (That one is courtesy of a pick swap with the Chicago Sky — part of the same almost-literally-unbelievable deal that yielded the pick for Citron.) There is plenty of room for the franchise to add some talent around their promising core.

Yet that was not the focus Wednesday. No WNBA playoff team was as young as the 2026 Mystics, and none was as clearly fun, either. Washington coach Sydney Johnson has spent much of the season talking about how this group plays with joy. (This might easily be cheesy or eye-roll-inducing were it not so clearly sincere.) But in the early, raw hours of their offseason, they spoke more of love and sisterhood.

“We love each other,” Citron said after the loss. “We have fun, we never lose our joy, and I think that’s just super, super special. And I don’t think that’s everywhere. I’m just grateful.”

Her teammate said much the same.

“Truly, truly a lot of sisterhood with us this year,” Iriafen said. “That’s the thing I’m going to miss the most—just seeing my teammates every day. Yeah. I can’t believe our season’s over.”

And with that, they got up and left the room, together.]]> Why Didn’t the Mystics Playoff Game Get Moved to Capital One? https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/mystics-playoffs-capitol-one-arena-jonas-brothers Emma Baccellieri The answer is more than just “The Jonas Brothers.” Wed, 30 Sep 2026 09:25:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/mystics-playoffs-capitol-one-arena-jonas-brothers Mystics logo

Ben Hsu/Icon Sportswire/AP

The most elusive WNBA playoff ticket is not found in Indianapolis or New York or Dallas. Instead? Nowhere is harder (or more expensive) to get in than D.C.

When the Mystics host Game 2 of the first round on Wednesday, they will do so at their usual home of CareFirst Arena in Southeast D.C., which is among the smallest in the WNBA with a capacity of just 4,200. It will be the smallest arena hosting a playoff game in the league this year.

The only team with a smaller home than the Mystics is their current playoff opponent, the Atlanta Dream, but they have moved their postseason games so far to a much larger facility in State Farm Arena, ordinarily the home of the NBA’s Hawks. But a similar move will not be made this round for the Mystics to play at Capital One Arena, the home of the Wizards and Capitals.

The low capacity for a big game has contributed to high prices for the Mystics’ first playoff home game since 2019. As of Tuesday morning, fans could get in the door of every other upcoming WNBA playoff game for no more than $65, according to Ticketmaster. Meanwhile, the cheapest Mystics ticket available was $192.88. (That number was even higher before the Mystics’ loss in Game 1 on Sunday.)

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Fans were quick to react to the prices — and the fact that Capital One is hosting a Jonas Brothers concert the night of the game.

“I mean, good for [the Mystics],” one user wrote, “but … can the Jonas brothers cancel their concert?”

There are larger facilities in the region that have previously hosted the Mystics, including Capital One. (The Mystics, Capitals and Wizards are all owned by Monumental Sports and Entertainment.) While the arena was closed for renovations this summer, it reopened in late September, and the Mystics played their last game of the regular season there.

In response to questions from The Washington Sun about whether management considered blocking off Capital One for potential WNBA playoff dates or whether there had been any discussion of moving the concert, Monumental Sports and Entertainment replied with a statement:

“Capital One Arena hosts more than 200 events on average each year, including full home schedules for three team tenants, world-class concerts and a wide range of special events — all while continuing the transformation of the arena. Dates and venue needs must be coordinated across several teams, leagues, promoters and other partners, often months or years in advance. We will continue working closely with the Mystics and the league to identify opportunities to host Mystics games at Capital One Arena in future seasons.”

The Mystics have played most of their home games at CareFirst since 2019. (Previously, they played at Capital One, where strong attendance in their early years dipped as the league struggled in the late 2000s and early 2010s.) The building is owned and operated by the city government through Events DC. It also serves as the Wizards’ practice facility and as the home of the G League Capital City Go-Go.

As the WNBA has grown over the last few years, Washington’s arena has become the subject of increased discussion. By next year, 10 of the 15 WNBA teams will be playing in NBA or NHL arenas that seat at least 15,000. (Another three are in arenas with a capacity of more than 10,000.) CareFirst Arena’s size made it something of an outlier in the WNBA even when it was brand new. It has only become more so in the years since. Every home game for the Mystics at CareFirst has been sold out since 2024.

Their lease to play in the building runs through 2037.

But that has previously come up for debate. Monumental proposed moving the team into a bigger arena just a few years ago. In 2023, when the organization tried moving the Wizards and Capitals to a new facility in Virginia, part of the plan involved moving the Mystics to Capital One. Ownership described the franchise as growing too fast to stay in place for long.

“Fortunately, women’s sports are ascendent, experiencing significant growth. The Mystics regularly sell out their home games,” Monumental CEO Ted Leonsis wrote in a January 2024 letter about the proposal. “Unfortunately, the Mystics and its dedicated fan base are outgrowing the Entertainment and Sports Arena,” the old name of CareFirst.

The D.C. government pushed back on the team leaving the arena before the expiration of the lease. Ultimately, the plan was scuttled in March 2024, and Monumental instead reached a deal with D.C. to keep the Capitals and Wizards at Capital One Arena until 2050. That has left the Mystics in place at CareFirst.

Wednesday night will mark the first home playoff game for the franchise since the 2019 WNBA Finals. (The Mystics qualified for the playoffs in 2022 and ’23 but were swept out of the first round both times before having the chance to host a game.) In a best-of-three series, Wednesday’s Game 2 is do-or-die for Washington, who pulled off a remarkable turnaround this year. The Mystics say they expect their small house to be very full and very, very loud.

“You feed off that energy and that enthusiasm,” head coach Sydney Johnson said at practice on Tuesday. “D.C. loves this team.”]]> Betnijah Laney-Hamilton Is Right at Home With the WNBA’s Youngest Team https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/betnijah-laney-hamilton-mystics-playoffs Emma Baccellieri The Mystics’ midseason addition brings valuable playoff experience to a roster that has almost none. Tue, 29 Sep 2026 09:09:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/betnijah-laney-hamilton-mystics-playoffs

Betnijah Laney-Hamilton has by far the most playoff experience of any Mystics player. (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire/AP)

Michaela Onyenwere was thrilled when the Mystics brought in Betnijah Laney-Hamilton.

Back when Onyenwere was a rookie, playing for the New York Liberty in 2021, Laney-Hamilton had been her favorite vet. “She was somebody who was consistent every single day, not only in her work ethic, but also just in her accountability,” Onyenwere said. “I was like, OK, that’s somebody I can really look up to.” She was naturally excited to reunite as teammates when the Mystics claimed Laney-Hamilton off waivers in August. The acquisition meant that the team would be getting both valuable depth on the wing and valuable leadership in the locker room, Onyenwere thought.

And one more thing.

The acquisition meant that Onyenwere would no longer be the oldest player on the Mystics.

On the youngest team in the WNBA, loaded with rookies, Onyenwere sometimes feels like a senior citizen. “They always joke about how old I am,” she sighs, at the ripe age of … 27. The Mystics’ youth is clear in everything from their dancing to their social media to their team nickname. (They’ve taken to calling themselves the “Young Hos” — good luck printing that on a rally towel.)

It has made for a delightful romp of a season as the team has outperformed projections and cruised into the playoffs. But as they prepared for their stretch run, they decided they could use a bit of a veteran presence, and they found that in 32-year-old Laney-Hamilton.

“We’re super energetic, and we’re excited for everything, but I think she keeps us stable and focused,” said Mystics reserve guard Lucy Olsen. “She’s been really great for us.”

And they have been great for her.

“To sum it up,” Laney-Hamilton said, “it’s just been fun.”

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As the fifth-seeded Mystics have entered the playoffs — dropping Game 1 against the No. 4 Dream on Sunday, with a must-win Game 2 scheduled for Wednesday — her leadership has been key.

Few players in the WNBA can match her breadth of experience. Laney-Hamilton played for five franchises in her first seven years in the league — battling for minutes and bouncing from team to team in search of a steady role. As she was starting to gain her footing, she tore her ACL, sidelining her for a full season. Then, after those difficult early years, Laney-Hamilton broke through. She won the league award for Most Improved Player in 2020 after notching 17.2 points and 4.0 assists per game with the Dream. That performance cleared the way for her stint with the Liberty, where she became a key piece of the organization, eventually starting every playoff game of a championship run in 2024.

But the years since have been challenging. Laney-Hamilton tore her meniscus last spring and missed the entire season that followed. Working her way back from the injury this year, she did not find consistent minutes under new Liberty coach Chris DeMarco. Trade rumors abounded. She was ultimately waived. It led her to the Mystics, where she has found joy in becoming the resident vet.

“It’s a lot of youthful energy,” said Laney-Hamilton, who turns 33 in October. “It keeps things lighthearted, while at the same time being very competitive, very serious about what we do. I think that shows both on and off the court. Just how fun we are, the way that we celebrate each other, the way that we encourage each other, and then the way that we go out there and compete.”

Her career trajectory means that she can relate to everyone on the roster. Laney-Hamilton knows what it’s like to be a playoff starter and what it’s like to be on the end of the bench and everything in between. “It’s great to have her knowledge,” said Mystics rookie forward Cotie McMahon. “Just so much IQ.”

Laney-Hamilton has worked off the bench since joining the team, averaging 4.2 points in 15.5 minutes per game, a very different role from what she had a few years ago. This group has quickly embraced her as a leader all the same.

“To see her integrated into our team that quickly and that seamlessly has been really cool,” said Onyenwere. “She’s been a sounding board for us. She’s a voice for us. … She brings things that are intangible.”

Her playoff experience is especially valuable. The majority of this group had never been near the postseason before this year; the rest of the roster had a combined two career playoff starts before Game 1. Laney-Hamilton had 25. The coaching staff has leaned on her even more over the past week.

“She’s talking from a position of authority, credibility. She’s been there, done that,” said Mystics coach Sydney Johnson. “It can really give our players an added level of confidence.”

Yet for all the emphasis on her wisdom and experience and veteran status, Laney-Hamilton has still very much clicked with this group as just another player.

“She's older, but she's so young-minded and spirited,” Olsen said. “She fits right in.”

Which leaves just one question: Is there an age limit on being a Young Ho?

“Honestly, yes, and she is past that limit,” said McMahon, one of the chief architects of the nickname. “But she’s still considered a Young Ho.”]]> In Their Game 1 Loss, the Mystics Acted Their Age https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/mystics-atlanta-dream-game-1 Emma Baccellieri The team made plenty of youthful mistakes in a 92-77 loss to the Dream, setting up a do-or-die Game 2 in Washington. Mon, 28 Sep 2026 01:24:25 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/mystics-atlanta-dream-game-1

Mystics rookie Lauren Betts is surrounded by Dream defenders during Sunday night's Game 1 loss. (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire/AP)

ATLANTA — The Mystics are the youngest playoff team in the history of the WNBA. And they very much looked it during their Game 1 loss to the Dream on Sunday.

They built a lead in the first half only to lose it quickly in the second. Mistakes piled up. (Atlanta had 27 points off 23 turnovers from Washington.) Free throws clanked off the rim. The Mystics alternately found themselves uncomfortably rushed and uncomfortably slowed: Rhythm was hard to come by.

When they did eventually find a spark, it was too late, in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter. The final score was 92-77. It was a bruising check for a team who had cruised through much of their stretch run to get here.

A best-of-three series does not allow much time for adjustments. Game 2 on Wednesday will be do-or-die for the Mystics. For a roster with a history of making big, fast developmental jumps, this will be its biggest challenge yet.

“This is our first time here,” said Mystics forward Kiki Iriafen. “Not that that’s an excuse, but now we know what it looks like. We have a taste for it. And we’ll be better prepared for our game on Wednesday.”

Sunday night started off relatively promising for the Mystics. They played to their strengths in the first half — packing the paint and winning the rebounding battle. And this was largely without Iriafen, typically among their most important frontcourt players, who spent much of the first half on the bench after picking up three quick fouls. Rookie center Lauren Betts filled in admirably in her stead. The Mystics led by as many as 11 and hit the locker room up by five. But there were already signs that lead might not hold long for Washington.

The Mystics had 12 turnovers in that first half. They were only lucky the Dream did not convert more of them into baskets. This was the most striking mismatch between these rosters on paper: Atlanta gets more steals than any other team in the WNBA, and Washington turns over the ball more than any other team in the WNBA, as worrying a stat combination a coach might possibly find in a playoff matchup. It spelled doom in Game 1.

“They’re just a very physical team,” said Mystics guard Sonia Citron, who led the team in scoring with 25 points. “But I think we kind of played into that. … We can’t let them speed us up.”
Mystics Dream (5667x3778, AR: 1.50)The Mystics struggled to find any flow coming out of the locker room after halftime. As the Dream dug in and chipped away, they got an especially big lift from the most experienced player on the floor, 39-year-old DeWanna Bonner, who dropped 11 of her 13 points in the third quarter.

Age has its limits. Youth has its advantages. But the benefit of experience felt obvious here. Bonner was playing in her 99th career playoff game. Nine of the 12 players on the Mystics’ roster were playing in their very first. The difference was hard to shake.

“We just let them get comfortable offensively,” said Citron, who also had six rebounds and three assists. “In the first half, we did a good job of just making everything hard for them, and then in that third quarter, we just let some of our discipline slip.”

This was the biggest loss for the Mystics since before the All-Star break in July. But for all its frustrations and lapses and errors, there were bright spots here, too. Washington finished with 50 rebounds to Atlanta’s 31. Citron had a remarkably complete performance, and Iriafen recovered well from her foul trouble to make the most of her limited minutes, finishing with 15 points and 14 boards. The defense meaningfully limited Dream star Angel Reese, particularly in the first half, when she shot 1-for-11. There was a pathway here to a potential win. Washington is now tasked with navigating that path for Game 2.

Much of the conversation around the Mystics this season has centered on player development.

Head coach Sydney Johnson often sounds like a proud dad — eagerly relaying new milestones and signs of improvement. The Mystics of June were very different from the Mystics of August. In some ways, Game 1 felt like a regression, with the roster falling back into mistakes they had mostly outgrown over the last few months. But this roster knows that growth is not always linear. When the Mystics have stumbled backward, they have generally been able to recover quite well.

“I’ve really been humbled by how fast and how quick they’ve grown from one week to the next,” Johnson said before tipoff. “That’s frankly why we’re sitting here. Just because we’ve gotten so much better as a team.”

They do not have a full week to grow. But they do have a few days. And that has been enough for this group in the past.

A favorite story of Johnson’s is the Mystics’ road trip out to Golden State back in July. They had two games against the Valkyries, a title contender among the best teams in the league, and one that beat the Mystics soundly when they last met in 2025. Johnson challenged them to improve on that result in 2026. They did. Washington’s first game against Golden State was a tough, five-point loss, and the rematch two days later was a win. Johnson has said that it felt like watching the Mystics grow up in one night.

Now, to extend their season, they must do it again.

“I think we had fight tonight,” Iriafen said. “But we have another level that we can get to.”]]> Elena Delle Donne Isn’t Coming Back. Not That She Hasn’t Thought About It. https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/elena-delle-donne-mystics Dave Sheinin The Mystics legend, whose jump shot is still as good as ever, is the link between the 2019 championship squad and 2026 playoff team. Sat, 26 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/elena-delle-donne-mystics

Elena Delle Donne was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Aug. 15 in Springfield, Massaschusetts. (Rusty Jones/AP)

The adrenaline was still there. The joy was still there. And lo and behold, the shot was still there, arcing over and over from Elena Delle Donne’s fingertips to the bottom of the net. With the familiar butterflies running through her and her senses reengaged — the tacky grip of the basketball, the cacophony of the crowd, the sharp-edged geometry of the court — it was only natural that a voice in her head would cut through the chaos of WNBA’s All-Star Weekend and whisper: “You could still have this.”

It was July 24, and Delle Donne, who last played for the Washington Mystics in 2023 and officially retired in 2024, had just teamed with former Mystics teammate Shakira Austin and high school phenom Jezelle “GG” Banks at Chicago’s Wintrust Arena to win the WNBA Shooting Stars competition — a contest bringing together a retired legend, a current player and a prospect from each city in the league. All anybody wanted to know, including the voice in Delle Donne’s own head, was whether she might consider a comeback.

“There will always be a spot for her on the court in Washington if she wants it!” Mystics owner Ted Leonsis posted on X.

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It was — and remains — a tantalizing thought. As the 2026 Mystics, those youthful, exuberant upstarts, prepare to open the WNBA playoffs against Atlanta, the centerpiece of their last great team, the 2019 league champions, has reemerged into the public spotlight after several years spent largely out of view. She had no choice: This summer alone, aside from the nationally televised Shooting Stars victory, Delle Donne was inducted into no fewer than three halls of fame.

All other things being equal, Delle Donne would rather be getting ready for another deep playoff run than writing hall of fame speeches and being asked about her legacy. A few weeks past her 37th birthday, Delle Donne wouldn’t even be the oldest player in the WNBA this season — that would be 39-year-old Alysha Clark of the Dallas Wings — a reality that only dials up the pull the game still exerts on her.

“For the rest of my life, I’m going to consider playing,” she told The Washington Sun. “It’s such a part of you. To have the crowd behind you, to go out and win a championship — those things are so exciting and fun. Of course, you think about it: Do I still have it? Could I push through everything? So yeah, you question it. It’s only human.

“But the reality is, when the next day you wake up and it’s, ‘Ugh, my back,’ and I’ve got a kink in my neck from sleeping on it wrong – that’s when you get brought back to reality. I certainly wish I could still be playing. I feel like skills-wise, I still have it. It’s just that my body doesn’t have it.”

And so, when the Mystics take the floor for their playoff opener, Delle Donne, a special adviser to Monumental Basketball (the Mystics’ parent company), will remain behind the scenes. While her role, by design, is largely undefined, encompassing elements of scouting, coaching and executive strategizing, she thinks of herself mostly as a liaison between the coaching staff and the Mystics’ players, who collectively make up the youngest roster in the league. Two of those players are her former teammates: Austin, whose first two seasons with the Mystics, 2022 and 2023, were Delle Donne’s last two, and guard Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, with whom she played two seasons in Chicago.

“You get to see what the front office goes through. You get to work with the coaching staff,” Delle Donne said of her Monumental gig. “But my favorite part is going to practice and interacting with the players and staff — seeing that growth over the course of a season and trying to give each player a piece of something to help them in life or on the court, whatever that might be.”

There are few obvious parallels between the veteran-laden Mystics team that won the title in 2019 and the youthful upstarts of 2026, but Delle Donne has taken note of an important one:

“The love for each other,” she said. “That’s how we were [in 2019], and more than anything else, that’s what I see in this team: the selflessness and the caring about the person next to you. It means way more than any individual accolade anyone gets.”

‘There’s Other Life to Be Had’

The 2019 Mystics season was the high-water mark of Delle Donne’s dazzling career, culminating in not only her second MVP award but her one and only championship. She became the first WNBA player in history to shoot better than 50% on field goals, 40% on three-pointers and 90% on free throws. (Her career free-throw success rate of 93.7% remains the best in history by anyone in either the WNBA or NBA.)

But she also spent much of that season in excruciating pain from a back injury that required three surgeries to repair herniated discs after the season ended, while also dealing with lingering effects from Lyme disease, which has afflicted her since childhood, requiring a daily regimen of 50 pills and supplements to counteract it.

“Thank God we won a championship,” she said of those 2019 Mystics, “because I put my back on the line for that one.”

She would play three more seasons — opting out of the 2020 “bubble” season during the pandemic — then went more or less off the grid, disappearing into family life (she married her partner, Amanda Clifton, in 2017) and eventually finding behind-the-scenes roles within the game, both with Monumental and with USA Basketball as the managing director of the women’s 3x3 National Team.

“I didn’t want to be a player who hung around until the wheels literally fell off,” she said. “I know there’s other life to be had. Who knows? Hopefully there are kids down the road. I want to be able to play with them and not be in constant pain. I had done all I could [as a player] in the sport.”

She might have stayed out of the public eye forever if it weren’t for the various halls of fame lining up to bestow a measure of immortality upon her this summer. It started on June 27 with the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she was inducted as part of a class that also included fellow WNBA legend Candace Parker, broadcaster Doris Burke and longtime Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve.

Next up, on Aug. 15, was the big one: the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, where her induction class included Parker, fellow Mystics standout Chamique Holdsclaw and longtime NBA player and championship-winning coach Doc Rivers.

By the time the D.C. Sports Hall of Fame called and told Delle Donne she would be inducted on Aug. 30 — along with NFL linebacker London Fletcher and basketball standout turned coach Tommy Amaker, among others — it was starting to feel a little ridiculous.

“I’d call my family and be like, ‘Hey, we have another hall of fame,’” she said. “They’re like, ‘Wait, what’s this one?’ And I’m like, ‘I didn’t realize there were this many either. But hey, we’re doing it.’... I’ve never been one to talk much about myself. But you kind of have to when you’re going into the Hall of Fame. I definitely tried to make my speeches about the bigger lessons I learned by playing sports.”

‘They’re Getting What They Deserve’

Those honors, however overwhelming when taken together, seemed like well-deserved milestones in the post-playing life of a sports legend.

But in the middle of all that legacy-burnishing, Delle Donne got the call asking her to participate in the Shooting Stars competition during All-Star Weekend. At the time, she had barely picked up a basketball in three years, her on-court activity limited to occasionally guarding and rebounding for her 13-year-old niece Gia during the teen’s workouts. Had that remained the full extent of her on-court participation in basketball, she would have been perfectly content.

Being back on the court in Chicago, however, and back in the public spotlight, was a revelation in several ways for Delle Donne, with none more powerful than the mixture of awe and pride she felt at how huge the WNBA’s All-Star extravaganza had become: a full weekend of events featuring first-class treatment for participants and massive crowds everywhere — capped by the All-Star Game itself, with nearly 20,000 spectators jammed into the arena.

It was a far cry from the way she remembers All-Star Games from early in her career, which, she said, felt like “a scrimmage that was just thrown together, and hopefully people will show up.”

In 2013, Delle Donne’s rookie year with the Chicago Sky, the league averaged about 7,500 fans per game, with none of the league’s 12 teams averaging more than 10,000. But this year, with the WNBA having expanded to 15 teams (and with three more on the way), average attendance is 11,482, with 10 teams averaging more than 10,000, led by the Golden State Valkyries at 18,064 per game.

“The level of play has always been there, and it was just so hard to understand the lag of getting the media attention, getting businesses to buy in, getting eyes on our game,” Delle Donne said. “I knew it was the greatest product, and when people watched it, they loved it. But when I was playing, most of the time you couldn’t find it on TV … It was so frustrating that it didn’t have that ‘cool’ factor.

“We got the message all the time from [league] leadership: ‘You need to do all these things or we’re folding. You have to save the game.’ And it was always so frustrating to be like: ‘Why can’t our greatness on the court be enough?’ And I’m so glad it is enough now.”

Everything — the All-Star experience, the Mystics’ summer surge to the playoffs, the realization that her shot was as beautiful and effective as ever — conspired to raise the volume of that voice in her head, the one telling her she could still mount a comeback.

In the end, though, it was not only the back pain that kept Delle Donne from heeding that call. It was also the constant reflection on her legacy, necessitated by all those hall of fame speeches, plus her firsthand look in Chicago at what that legacy had helped achieve: a league that is exploding with growth; record attendance and television ratings; a new collective-bargaining agreement that has seen player salaries increase exponentially.

“I’m so proud of the people who came before me, the people of my era who played and are still playing, and the younger generation,” she said. “They’re getting what they deserve.”

Maybe Delle Donne also deserved a taste of it. But that’s what she got in Chicago. And she did it without sacrificing her health. Her balky back is quiet for the moment. Maybe someday soon, the voice in her head will be, too.]]> The Mystics Are Back in the Playoffs. Now They Want More. https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/mystics-playoffs-dream-matchup Emma Baccellieri They’ll be the No. 5 seed, set for a matchup with Atlanta, when the WNBA playoffs start on Sunday. Fri, 25 Sep 2026 11:55:17 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/mystics-playoffs-dream-matchup Mystics

Ross D. Franklin/AP

A funny thing happened in Capital One Arena on Thursday. Sydney Johnson’s record as head coach of the Mystics finally reached .500.

The team has won so much in his second year that it has been easy to forget how much they lost in his first. Consider: The Mystics have known for weeks that playoff basketball will be happening in D.C. come late September. They have been the hottest team in the WNBA since the All-Star break. Johnson has a legitimate case for Coach of the Year. Does it not seem that surely, surely, the coach must have already shed his losing record with the franchise? It does.

Yet it did not actually happen until Thursday, the final night of the regular season, with a 101-93 win over the Sky. The game helped clinch the No. 5 playoff seed for the Mystics. And it created a remarkable symmetry across Johnson’s two years in D.C.

In his first season with the young, rebuilding Mystics, Johnson led them to a record of 16-28. And in his second season with the still-young, very-much-rebuilt Mystics, he led them to a record of 28-16.

The results have completely flipped. Here is .500: Every loss this core experienced last year has been balanced by a win this year. This new era of franchise basketball has only just reached equilibrium.

It’s a lovely place to end the regular season. It’s not where they want to end the year.

“We want more out of these playoffs,” Johnson said on Thursday. “We want to play more basketball.”

The Mystics’ dramatic turnaround has put considerable focus on their youth. (They are, indeed, the youngest roster to qualify for the playoffs in the history of the WNBA, with six rookies and three sophomore players on the roster.) That has come with discussion about how they were not expected to be here, and how they are remarkably far ahead of schedule, and how they have an open window to contend in the future. All of that is true. But that is not quite the point for the Mystics.

As they see it: They are here now. The playoffs start on Sunday. They are ready to go.

“Coming into the season, we didn't have anything to lose, but we knew everything that we wanted to accomplish,” Mystics rookie forward Cotie McMahon said. “And we're here. We're accomplishing it all.”

Their win over the Sky on Thursday was shakier than it should have been. (An unusually lackadaisical fourth quarter meant they came uncomfortably close to blowing a 25-point lead.) But it was a win all the same, and it gave them the No. 5 seed, creating a first-round showdown with the No. 4 Dream.

In some ways, these rosters are intriguingly similar. No WNBA team gets more rebounds than Washington … but the one that comes closest is Atlanta. No WNBA team shoots more within five feet of the basket than Atlanta … but the one that comes closest is Washington. An intense paint matchup is a given. But there are several key stylistic differences here.

The Dream gain their defensive edge by forcing turnovers. (They lead the WNBA with 9.1 steals per game.) The Mystics have one of the best defenses in the league without forcing many turnovers. The Dream have more three-point shooting. The Mystics have more depth.

Back in June, when these teams first played each other this season, Atlanta dominated, 109-77. It was the worst loss of the year for Washington, and the ugliest, too: The ordinarily calm Johnson was ejected. But a young team can grow fast. The Mystics did not play a game like that again. They beat the Dream when they faced them in July and in August, a bit more cohesive, confident and calculated each time. They are eager to show just how much they have grown in September.

Mystics’ notes:

The team had a brief scare in the fourth quarter on Thursday when Shakira Austin hit the ground hard, absorbing contact for a foul. After making her free throws — and receiving a standing ovation from the crowd — she went to the locker room and did not return. There was no official medical update immediately after the game. But Johnson said that he did not see any cause for great concern: “I’m expecting that she’ll be with us,” he said about her status for Game 1, noting that she had been smiling in the locker room.

Thursday night was the Mystics’ one and only game this season at Capital One Arena. (With the building undergoing renovations this summer, the team did not have the opportunity to host additional games downtown, as it often has in years past. Every previous home game this season was played at their standard home arena, CareFirst, in Southeast D.C.) And don’t count on that changing in the event of a deep playoff run. Cap One is booked with concerts, Wizards and Capitals games for the dates of nearly all potential future postseason games. Expect the playoff journey to run through CareFirst.

]]> How Sydney Johnson Helped Turn the Mystics Around https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/washington-mystics-sydney-johnson Martenzie Johnson The second-year coach has helped transform Washington from basement dwellers to one of the WNBA’s most exciting — and dangerous — teams. Thu, 24 Sep 2026 09:13:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/sports/washington-mystics-sydney-johnson

From day one Sydney Johnson established his five pillars of team success: joy, direct communication, humility to work together, hard work and constant competition. (Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire/AP)

During a seven-game span in early August, Mystics guard Georgia Amoore totaled just 17 points. In four of those games she shot a combined zero for 10. Social media critics called for the former All-American, who missed the 2025 season with an ACL injury, to be benched.

Then, during a postgame conference on Aug. 15, Sydney Johnson, the Mystics’ head coach, was asked who the most underrated player on the team was. He immediately said Amoore, even though he knew it would “stir up a lot.”

Amoore wasn’t surprised, she said, because Johnson had shown her that level of compassion since she joined the team. But for her and her teammates, those small gestures go a long way.

“When the coach's belief in you is high, you know your belief in yourself is high and your teammates, and you know that can take you a really, really long way,” said Amoore, who since Aug. 19 has been averaging 11.6 points on 50.6% 3-point shooting for the Mystics, who enter the season’s final game Thursday as one of the WNBA’s most exciting and dangerous teams.

In just two seasons, Johnson has helped morph the Mystics from basement dwellers to a playoff team. From day one Johnson established his five pillars of team success: joy, direct communication, humility to work together, hard work and constant competition. The players embrace it and hold themselves accountable.

“I wasn't gonna let any riding the wave of wins, losses, injuries, officiating, a bad play call by me, I was not gonna let that steal the joy,” Johnson said. “And I was really, really committed to that.”

Part of that joy comes from establishing healthy relationships. Johnson talks to his players about not only basketball, but also life. Players feel that he cares and that they can be open, honest and direct without fear of consequence.

What’s been the result?

The top rebounding team (37.6 per game) in the league and the second-ranked scoring defense (82.5) allowing the second-lowest shooting percentage (43%), as of Sept. 23. Their 27-16 record is the sixth best in the league.

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For a team that was 16-27 at this same point last season, the turnaround in one year is impressive. It becomes staggering when you consider that Washington has the youngest roster in the league, eight of whom are rookies.

But the fact that the Mystics are ahead of schedule doesn’t limit their ambitions for what they’re capable of in this year’s playoffs, which begin this weekend.

“Since the beginning, we knew we had it in us and we wanted to get there,” star guard Sonia Citron said. “But at the same time, there's so many things we can get better at that we know there's even more potential.”

‘This Might Be a Little Different Group’

There wasn’t a single moment this season when Johnson knew he had something special.

Rather, the realization came during a pair of back-to-back games in the Bay.

In the first of consecutive games against the Valkyries at Chase Center in July, Washington led by six points with just over seven minutes remaining in the game. But Golden State got hot from the 3-point line and ended the game on a 15-4 run in a 74-69 win.

This was the Mystics’ first trip to San Francisco since last season when the Valkyries ran them off the floor in a 99-63 rout, handing Washington its sixth straight loss in what would end up being a 10-game losing streak. That memory was fresh as the Mystics headed into the second of the two games this season.

“I was very mindful of like, ‘Hey, we have to go out there, and of course we want to win, but we got to make sure that we play the way we know how to play — together and tough — and that we can't have our identity taken from us, we can't have our heart ripped out.”

The Valkyries, then on a nine-game winning streak, led 80-73 with three-and-a-half minutes left in the fourth quarter. A Shakira Austin steal and Cotie McMahon’s and-1 basket helped jump-start what would end up a 17-2 run that ended in a 90-82 Mystics win.

His team’s ability to shrug off the letdown from the first game and walk out of the second with an unflinching swagger was when Johnson was finally convinced.

“That's when I was like, ‘This might be a little different group.’”

Starting with the 2025 draft, the Mystics began a youth movement. They traded away veterans Ariel Atkins and Brittney Sykes while adding Citron, Kiki Iriafen and Amoore. Then last offseason, they emphasized getting bigger, faster and stronger. They drafted Lauren Betts, the 2026 NCAA tournament Final Four Most Outstanding Player, and McMahon, a two-time first-team All-Big Ten selection, while adding former rookie of the year Michaela Onyenwere and 2024 WNBA champion Betnijah Laney-Hamilton through free agency and off waivers, respectively.

Washington has allowed this core to learn on the job and play through their mistakes. While they didn’t always get the results they wanted, positive things came from the hard times.

“[Age] plays a factor, but it doesn't,” Citron said. “We don't want to use that as an excuse to say why we didn't win or why we didn't do what we wanted to do. It's because we're young. We don't think that's an excuse.”

Their youth may not be a crutch, but it is surely infectious. This TikTok generation of players has their 52-year-old coach acting differently.

How many people born during the Nixon presidency do you normally see doing the viral Scuba Dance? After victories, Johnson comes running into the locker room doing exaggerated acrobatics — all posted on social media, of course. Following Austin’s putback, and-1 game-winner over the Aces on July 22, Johnson ran in circles around the locker room before belly flopping onto the floor like he was Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka.

He’s asked if he felt the repercussions for that one the next day.

“People have asked me that. Honest, no,” Johnson said. “Maybe it was the adrenaline or something. I don't know, and I don't know what came over me or comes over me in those moments. But yeah, I'm still intact.”

Of course there’s the team’s self-created nickname that likely won’t be added to marketing materials anytime soon. All season the Mystics have been calling themselves the “Young Hos,” a play on their youngest-in-the-W age.

Johnson clutched his pearls at first but after further conversation with Iriafen and McMahon, he’s perfectly fine with how they choose to express themselves, as he’s encouraged them to.

“I think they're showing their genuine affection for each other, and I can't hold that back,” Johnson said. “The dad in me is like, ‘Be respectful and know that people have eyes on you.’ But it's really just the joy that they have for being around each other. So, I'm not going to stand in the way of that.”

‘It’s Time to Lock In’

There might be dance parties and “dubs in the chat,” but the Mystics know the goal is on-court success, not internet virality.

“We say some things or do some things that are just out of pocket and funny and, like, in the best way,” Amoore said. “But he'll laugh at it, and then when it's time to lock in, like, it's time to lock in.”

The team has been especially locked in on the defensive end. Iriafen (6-foot-3) and Austin (6-foot-5) are the imposing anchors, daring anyone to step foot in the paint at their own peril. Austin has held opponents to the second-lowest effective field goal percentage (51.1%) in the restricted area in the league, according to Second Spectrum, while both are in the top 10 in defensive rebound percentage. Citron is one of the peskiest wing defenders in the league, and if you give her even a millimeter she will step into a passing lane for an interception (her 1.2 steals per game leads the team).

“I love offense. I love pass, dribble, shoot. I love pace,” Johnson said. “But defensively, you’ve got to get stops. That's your toughness, that's your grit, and it shows your togetherness because it’s not a ton of stats on that. It's like we’ve got to work together.”

The offense, on the other hand, could use some work. They score the fourth-fewest points per game (82.6) and are bottom four in the league in 3-point attempts (19.5), makes (6.2) and percentage (31.9%).

Johnson said he sees offensive improvement in practice, it just hasn’t translated to games yet. The team puts Austin and Iriafen at the center of the scheme, which has translated to Washington averaging the third-most baskets (15.6) in the restricted area this season.

“We definitely play inside out and allow our strengths to come from the post, and using our size and using our athletic abilities,” Austin said.

That style might not be the most aesthetically pleasing, but it has allowed the Mystics to earn some tough victories. The last-minute win over the Valkyries. The last-second triumph over the reigning champion Aces. The four-overtime marathon win over the Fire that took over three-and-a-half hours and ended with four players fouling out. The Mystics have won a league-high 17 clutch games, defined as games that are within five points in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime.

Last year at this time, the team simply wanted to make it together through the season — the league’s first to feature 44 games.

Before the season Iriafen branded this year the “44 and more,” making it clear the postseason was the objective.

On Aug. 23, for the first time in three years, Washington clinched a playoff berth.

“We stayed in the moment, but we were also aspirational. We were like, ‘Hey, we can do a little bit more here,’” Johnson said. “I'm not saying we forecasted where we are right now, but I did know that and felt like we were going to be better.”]]>