Mystics vs. Dream: Defensive lapses doom Washington

With four rookies and minimal experience on a roster plagued by injuries, there are lessons to be learned after each loss for the Washington Mystics.

The lessons learned from an 86-79 loss to Atlanta on Wednesday at Verizon Center dealt primarily with boxing out on rebounds, forcing defensive stops and holding onto the basketball.

Loading...

Comments

• Weigh In
• Corrections?

Personal Post

The Mystics — who haven’t won back-to-back games since they began the season 2-0 — fumbled the ball down the stretch and gave up a decisive 10-1 run to Atlanta before 13,954 on the Mystics’ annual camp day.

After recording the second-best comeback in WNBA history in an overtime win over Los Angeles on Sunday, the Mystics (3-11) left their defensive mentality across the country. Atlanta’s Angel McCoughtry led four players in double figures with a career-high 33 points; she shot 11 of 14 from the free throw line.

“We will continue to be patient and teach them,” Mystics Coach Trudi Lacey said. “What I ask of them is to continue to learn and to grow and continue to play together. . . . The mental mistakes, they just have to stop in order for us to win these close games.”

The Mystics led by two in the fourth quarter after Marissa Coleman scored on a baseline layup. Then the Dream (6-9) started its run. It scored the next two baskets for the game’s 17th tie and 16th lead change. Off a Washington turnover, Lindsey Harding drove to the left side of the lane and made an off-balance shot, increasing Atlanta’s lead to four. On the ensuing possession, Coleman, in jeopardy of a five-second count, lobbed a cross-court pass to Kelly Miller, who bobbled the ball out of bounds with 33 seconds left.

“It’s very disappointing, especially when the game was in our control the entire time. We just had a few mental mistakes toward the end of the game,” said Coleman, who scored 15 of her career-high 21 points on 5 for 8 shooting from behind the arc. “I think it’s just mental toughness.”

The day after Crystal Langhorne was selected for the All-Star Game, the Mystics’ leading scorer recorded a double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Washington outscored the Dream in the paint, 24-14, through the first half, but was outscored inside 30-14 in the second half.

When Atlanta flooded the paint on the defensive end, the Mystics began taking three-pointers and connected on 9 of 18.

Coleman made three of her three-pointers in the third quarter. Jasmine Thomas followed her last three-pointer of the quarter with a layup to give the Mystics a 61-54 lead, their largest of the game, with 2 minutes 38 seconds left in the third. But a defensive lapse to end the quarter followed, as McCoughtry’s three-pointer at the buzzer capped the Dream’s 9-2 run and tied the score at 63.

“I think we were getting a lot of open looks and we were hitting a lot of our shots, but we weren’t taking care of it on the defensive end,” Coleman said. “I think that’s where the game was decided.”

Added Lacey: “We’re still learning to execute at the end of games. We’ll continue to work and get better at it.”

l  LYNX 106, MERCURY 98: In Phoenix, Seimone Augustus scored a season high-tying 25 points for Minnesota, which won for the fifth time in six games.