Mystics Drop Season Opener
Fever 64, Mystics 53
Katie Douglas, right, scored 24 points to lead the Fever past the Mystics. Indiana has won five in a row against Washington.
(By Tom Strickland -- Associated Press)
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Sunday, May 18, 2008; Page D02
INDIANAPOLIS, May 17 -- The Washington Mystics had been having trouble with Indiana before the Fever added former all-star Katie Douglas.
In the 2008 WNBA season opener, Douglas only made life worse for the Mystics.
An offseason acquisition from Connecticut, Douglas made her professional debut for her hometown team, leading the Fever to its fifth consecutive win over the Mystics, 64-53.
Douglas scored 24 points Saturday night in front of a crowd of 10,533 at Conseco Fieldhouse, the most by a player in her Fever debut, one more than Tamika Catchings as a rookie in 2002.
"Katie is a very talented player," said Washington's Monique Currie, who drew the defensive assignment most of the time and scored 10 points. "She's tough, tough to defend, and if you're not on your job, she'll do what she did tonight. She really went off on us tonight."
The Mystics were without Alana Beard, their leading scorer the past three seasons. The 5-foot-11 guard is listed as day-to-day because of a strained hamstring.
Nikki Blue, who had started one game her first two years in the WNBA, opened the season as the starting point guard without Beard as a running mate.
As a result, Indiana pressured the ball nearly the entire game, and the Mystics made 22 turnovers even though Blue had five assists to two turnovers.
"Teams know we have inexperienced point guards, so we expect them to come after us," Mystics Coach Tree Rollins said. "What we have to do now is start relieving some of the pressure with some back-court picks, which we didn't execute tonight."
The Mystics play at New York on Thursday before their home opener May 25, which begins a stretch of three consecutive games at Verizon Center.
Beard, who averaged 18.8 points last season, played in one of three preseason games as the Mystics went 3-0.
"We definitely missed that scoring threat, but if you look point for point and quarter for quarter, the problem was our mental breakdowns," said Mystics center Nakia Sanford, who had 14 points, 11 rebounds and a team-high 6 turnovers. "You can't win if you have 22 turnovers. I think we had four in a row there at one point. We definitely could have capitalized, and we didn't."
