Humphrey Quickly Finds Her Place With Mystics

When rookie forward Tasha Humphrey learned she had been traded from the Detroit Shock to the Washington Mystics, she knew whom she had to tell first. Humphrey found the name on her computer and immediately sent longtime friend Crystal Langhorne an instant message.

For the first time since they met eight years ago as ninth graders on a basketball trip to France, the 2008 first-round draft picks would be united as teammates.

Knowing Langhorne "has helped the transition a lot," Humphrey said after yesterday's practice. "Coming somewhere where you have a couple of familiar faces makes everything easier. It automatically gives you the kind of comfort level you'd look for because you have people who know what kind of person you are and what you can do."

By all accounts, Humphrey looks very comfortable heading into her third game with the Mystics, tonight at 7 against Indiana at Verizon Center. The 6-foot-3 former all-American and 11th overall selection in the 2008 draft has embraced the challenge of playing significant minutes in a critical role for Washington, as opposed to in Detroit, where she didn't have the same amount of responsibility playing behind Cheryl Ford and Plenette Pierson.

In Washington's 79-75 loss to Chicago on Friday, Humphrey was one of the most consistent players on the court for the Mystics. She came off the bench and played 28 minutes against the Sky, adding 11 points and nine rebounds -- an effort that prompted interim coach Jessie Kenlaw to insert her into the starting lineup against Minnesota the next night. Humphrey will start again tonight against the Fever, which is three games ahead of the sixth-place Mystics for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

"I like her mental toughness," Kenlaw said. "She's very competitive and I like the fact that she can bang. What I am hoping to see more of though, is her working down in the low post rather than facing up, that's how she can help us the most."

The biggest challenge for Humphrey, and the rest of the Mystics' front court, over the six remaining regular season games is learning how to mesh with each other. The group has four players with fewer than two years of WNBA experience -- Humphrey, Langhorne, Bernice Mosby and Andrea Gardner -- with center Nakia Sanford as the lone elder stateswoman, now in her sixth professional season.

Even for Langhorne and Humphrey, who are virtually inseparable off the court, learning how to play with each other on the court presented a new challenge.

"We're definitely still getting adjusted to each other," Langhorne said. "We've been good friends for a while but we haven't really played together. But because we know each other it's really easy to talk about what's going on out there and any problems we're having. Hopefully we're able to put it all together down the stretch."