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.
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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.”
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