Washington and New York begin their best-of-three first-round series Friday night, and the Mystics are prepared for a challenge.
. Washington’s record against New York is better than its record against any of the other teams with home-court advantage in the first round: the Aces , Connecticut Sun and Dallas Wings .The Liberty has a pair of former MVPs in the post with Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones, but its game starts on the perimeter. Point guard Courtney Vandersloot is a five-time all-star who led the league with 8.1 assists per game.
The Mystics match up better with perimeter-oriented teams than they do against bigger teams, particularly with center Shakira Austin still out with a hip injury. Brittney Sykes, Natasha Cloud and Ariel Atkins have been named to multiple all-defense teams and have consistently harassed opposing guards. The Liberty and Aces are the two highest-volume three-point shooting teams in the league.
“If you’re a great player, you like playing the best,” Delle Donne said. “So it’s always great playing against Stewie. Of course it’s always a huge challenge. She can score at will. She’s long defensively, and she’s got really great people around her, so you can’t draw too much attention to her or she’s going to make you pay, spread out to her other teammates. So it’s always a fun challenge.”
Both teams find themselves in an interesting position having just played each other days ago. Thibault said it’s an advantage for coaches who have already put together the scouting report, and both teams got a little more familiar with each other. He called Sunday’s win a playoff prequel, and while there will be tweaks from both sides, personnel and priorities aren’t likely to change much.
“New York is like one of the ideal matchups,” Sykes said. “It’s kind of like a little love story at this point. That was our first game of the season. Everybody’s been talking about them versus us, versus Vegas. … We’re probably one of the few teams that [had success] playing against the Vegases and the New Yorks.”
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