The Mystics will return from their summer break in full force.
Washington will play its first game in 20 days on Thursday after a nearly three-week WNBA hiatus for the FIBA World Cup. The Mystics had three players participate in the tournament: Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen for Team USA, and Alicia Florez for Spain.
All three players were absent from practice on Monday in D.C., but Mystics coach Sydney Johnson said the trio will play without restrictions Thursday against the Chicago Sky.
“Full go, full steam ahead,” Johnson said of their status.
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Prior to the break, the Mystics had won five of their last seven games, clinching their first playoff berth since 2023. With four regular season games remaining, the team sits seventh in the WNBA standings.
While the team was playing well before the hiatus, Johnson and his players agreed that a break was welcome. Rookie center Lauren Betts told The Sun that she and the other seven rookies on the team have been playing basketball for “a year straight” because they were drafted shortly after their final college seasons ended.
Betts and fellow rookie Angela Dugalic had the longest college season possible after winning the national championship at UCLA.
“I really needed a break mentally and physically from basketball,” Betts said. “So I did a lot of lifting on my own, but as far as basketball, I really tried to stay away from it for a week so I can come back and just be excited to be back and refreshed. I feel like it was really helpful.”
Mystics forward Michaela Onyenwere split her break between Los Angeles and Hawaii, staying up as late as 2 a.m. to watch her teammates play in Berlin. She compared the hiatus to an Olympic break, which she had during her rookie season in 2024. She said that Johnson’s message to the team has been “just because we took a break off doesn’t mean our identity waivers.”
“[Hoping to] to pick up where we left off,” Onyenwere said. “Last game [before the break] was kind of disappointing for us but we want to hone in on the things we were doing well — playing in transition, being a really great defensive unit.”
Citron and Iriafen were both late additions to Team USA’s roster after Kelsey Plum and A’ja Wilson dropped out for health reasons. Neither Mystics player carved out a large role for Team USA in Berlin, averaging roughly 11 minutes per game during the Americans’ gold medal run. Florez played about the same number of minutes for Spain.
Johnson said he wasn’t concerned about his players after their time in Berlin and is confident his team can maintain momentum after the long layoff.
“I think it’s disrupted everybody’s momentum,” Johnson said. “I think we’re equally advantaged and disadvantaged. So I don’t want to overthink it. I think for us as much as anything is trying to get the rust off a little bit and trying to get back into our groove. I think everybody’s gonna have to deal with that.”
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