Mystics' Blue Makes Point By Being Calm

Guard Has Orchestrated 3 Consecutive Victories

When she talks, she is quiet and measured. When she's on the court, running the Washington Mystics' offense as a point guard, she sometimes holds up a hand and slows the pace. When she goes out, she lets her teammates take the microphone and make fools of themselves at a karaoke machine.

After missing two weeks with a sprained right ankle, Nikki Blue has brought her calming influence back to the Mystics. Blue has started to settle in to her role on the team, and Washington has been 3-0 -- albeit against some of the league's weakest competition -- since her return to the starting lineup on June 13.

"I add that stability, when everyone is going haywire, everyone is going crazy," Blue said yesterday after practice. "I'm that person who's going calm. Nothing really shakes me or gets me excited or upsets me."

Blue's presence could benefit the Mystics against the ball-pushing, floor-running Phoenix Mercury tonight at Verizon Center.

Behind Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter, the league's top scorers, Phoenix (4-7) has developed the most potent offense in the WNBA. Though the Mercury have a porous defense, allowing 90.6 points per game, its offense has scored 87.4 points per game and proven too quick for some teams.

"You can't just get into a helter-skelter, up-and-down game with them," Mystics Coach Tree Rollins said. "And that's where your point guard takes control of the game."

For the Mystics (5-7), Blue's return has also meant a degree of continuity to an offense that has lacked point guard consistency as Crystal Smith and Amber Jacobs tried to fill in the vacated position.

After practice yesterday, the Mystics waived Jacobs, who had struggled to assert herself as a starter because of inconsistent play and a proclivity for turning over the ball.

Blue has averaged 6.7 points, 3 assists, 2.7 turnovers and 22 minutes per game since returning, and the Mystics have moved more in sync with her back in the lineup.

"She knows this team," forward Taj McWilliams-Franklin said. "She's been there. The two other point guards are new. That's what it boils down to. She knows what they want and when she gets on the court she knows how to do it and get everybody where they need to go."

In her third season with the Mystics -- the first in which she has seen substantial minutes -- Blue has been around the team enough to knows when it's right, on rare occasion, to speak up or to push the ball up the floor. But laying back and staying cool is still most natural for her.

She credits her demeanor, which she said carries over to the court, to her upbringing. She never saw her mother, a single parent, upset or bothered when money was scarce.

"It just seems like nothing ever shook her, even when things were tight financially," Blue said. "We could've been down to $0."

Blue has taken after her mother off the court and is starting to have success on it. And she could be important again tonight in steadying Washington against the up-tempo Mercury.

"Just play our game," she said, "and be calm."

Mystics Notes: McWilliams-Franklin said she dislocated her right index finger in practice yesterday as she reached for the ball. She shot free throws left-handed and had the finger wrapped after practice but does not anticipate missing any time. . . . The team signed forward Kendra Wecker, a three-year veteran who spent her career with the San Antonio Silver Stars before being released at the beginning of this season. In 2007, she averaged 5.2 minutes and 1.1 points per game.