WNBA Playoffs: Washington Dispatches Los Angeles in a Blowout

By ROB KNOX

@knoxrob1

 

WASHINGTON – Consistently galloping down the floor like thoroughbreds, the Washington Mystics cruised to a surprisingly easy 96-64 romp over the Los Angeles Sparks in a second round WNBA playoff game at the Smith Center on George Washington’s campus Thursday night.

 

The Mystics (23-12 overall) painted a hardwood masterpiece in advancing to the semifinals for the second straight season.

 

Astonished fans saluted Washington’s sparkling performance with a Niagara of noise as waves of shuddering sound roiled to the rafters and the echoes ricocheted off the walls.

 They left the arena happy and hoarse while still tingling with excitement and the comforting knowledge they will see the Mystics next week when they return home for game three of their best of five semifinal series against the Atlanta Dream that begins Sunday on the road. 

 

The Phoenix Mercury beat the Connecticut Sun, 96-86, in the other second round game to set up a semifinal round clash with the top-seeded Seattle Storm on Sunday afternoon in Seattle. Both semifinal games will be televised on ESPN2 beginning with the Dream and Mystics at 3 p.m. followed by the Mercury-Storm at 5 p.m.

 

The Mystics win was so dominant that even veteran head coach Mike Thibault struggled to find a phase of the game that didn’t meet his high standards.

 

“Obviously, we did a lot of things really well,” Thibault said. “We wanted to keep the pace of the game up. They like to play a lot slower; they like lower possession games. 

“And then, you know, we preach all the time about there are three things we need to win playoff games. That’s turnovers, free throw difference, and rebounding, and we did all of those tonight besides shooting the ball well.

“I think it’s a franchise [playoff] high in assists, we got 28. So, we did just about everything that we hoped. As a coach, you worry all day about this and that, and late game plays, but we didn’t have to worry about that tonight. It’s a great win.”

 

In placing six players in double figures led by Elena Delle Donne’s 19 points and playoff career high12 rebounds, the Mystics combined excellence and entertainment to set franchise playoff highs in a number of categories: points scored (96), margin of victory (32), field goals made (37), field goal percentage (.569), free throw percentage (1.000) and assists (28).

 

In her first career postseason game, Mystics rookie forward Ariel Atkins out of Texas scored 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field to go along with three assists and two rebounds. Mystics guard Natasha Cloud, playing in her ninth career playoff game, set career playoff highs in points (13), assists (seven), field goals made (five) and tied her career playoff high with five total rebounds.

 

Mystics center LaToya Sanders scored 14 points to go along with seven total rebounds and four assists, setting career playoff highs in all three categories. She also added a pair of tone-setting blocked shots in the first quarter that sent an emphatic message to the Sparks and fired-up an already hyped crowd. Kristi Toliver added 11 points and nine assists while Tianna Hawkins finished with 10 points.

 

“This was an amazing environment, which is preparing us for next year when we move into our new arena,” Cloud said. “Having the home court advantage was huge for us. Everybody came in focused tonight and ready. We all understood that this was the toughest game because of the single elimination format. I am really proud of this team of how we came in and executed the game plan to the tee.”

 

Part of that strategy was to run, run, and run some more. At times, the Mystics resembled the “Showtime” era Lakers of the 80s. The Mystics gobbled rebounds and fired outlet passes, which led to a number of easy layups. 

 

When the Mystics weren’t sprinting down the floor, their halfcourt offense was a splendid symphony of swing passes, weak-side movement and precision jump shooting.

 

“I think it was just trusting the next pass and trusting one another,” Delle Donne said of the Mystics offensive execution. “Not having to force any situation and just knowing if we continued to move the ball, they were going to break down at some point. We built a great culture here. Our trust with one another has grown this entire season on defense and offense and tonight it all kind of just came together.”

 

With the Sparks having had to endure a pair of cross-country flights and playing a tough and emotional game on Tuesday against the Minnesota Lynx in a four-day period, the Mystics wanted to wear down their west coast guests. 

 

After the Sparks raced to an early 8-2 lead a little over two minutes into the game, the evening belonged to the Mystics, who closed the first quarter with a 25-8 burst to open an 11-point lead. 

Candace Parker (only L.A. player to reach double figures with 16 points) gave the Sparks their final lead, 13-12, on a tip-in with 4 minutes, 52 seconds remaining.

 

“We realized (L.A.) came from playing us and Connecticut last weekend and flew back home to play Minnesota,” Cloud said. “We knew they were going to be tired so our focus was to push the ball at them every chance we got and control the pace. We felt that they would be able to stay with us for the first quarter and after that we were going to run them into the ground.”

 

The Sparks got as close as nine points on three occasions early in the second quarter before the Mystics put the game away. Delle Donne’s old fashioned 3-point play gave the Mystics a 34-22 lead with 6:12 left before intermission and the Mystics’ lead never dropped below double digits after that. Fueled by a pair of 3-pointers each from Hawkins and Cloud, Washington ended the first half on a 19-7 run to open a 50-29 halftime bulge.

 

While Washington’s offense was a sight to behold, its defense was dominant. Chelsea Gray, who scored 26 points in the win over the Lynx, finished with seven harmless points. The Sparks backcourt of Gray and Riquana Williams shot a combined 4-for-20. Los Angeles connected on 34.3 percent of its shots (24-for-70). 

 

There were no excuses after the game from the Sparks about travel and the fact that Nneka Ogwumike and Parker were battling illnesses lately.

 

“We did this to ourselves,” said Parker with her arms folded at the press conference table. “The teams that got rest, they took care of business. So we had to travel three straight weeks to the east coast, but we did this to ourselves. We weren’t able to fix everything in this game to get back to the semifinals. There’s a lot we can learn and one of them is you can’t until the last minute to take care of stuff.”

 

The Mystics put the final flourishes on their ninth win in 10 games since the All-Star by scoring 16 consecutive points highlighted by consecutive baskets from Shatori Walker-Kimbrough and a Cloud finger roll. 

 

“Tonight was fun and it was nice to get a big win as far as point margin,” Sanders said. “Everybody had fun and was happy and celebrating. It was a great win so hopefully we can keep it going in Atlanta. I didn’t look at the scoreboard until the end of the game. As a team, we knew we were playing well, but we still try not to focus on the score too much because there’s always things you can work on to get better.”