{"id":726333,"date":"2026-06-26T02:18:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T02:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/726333\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T02:18:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T02:18:18","slug":"the-mystics-are-defying-every-preseason-expectation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/726333\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mystics are defying every preseason expectation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6a\">It&#8217;s fair to say that a lot of people weren&#8217;t sure what to make of the Washington Mystics this season. As the younges team in the WNBA, it also would have been just fine and perfectly acceptable if the Mystics had opted to spend most of the 2026 season just trying to stay afloat. Instead, <a href=\"https:\/\/highposthoops.com\/the-washington-mystics-are-so-much-better-than-they-should-be\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">they&#8217;re trying to win<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6d\">The Mystics are currently ranked 8th in the league with an 8-8 record. It&#8217;s fair to say that they&#8217;re at a bit of a pivotal moment, and more wins could lead the team toward a season ending no one saw coming. There&#8217;s still a lot of basketball left in the 2026 season, but the idea that this year&#8217;s Washingotn Mystics could be a playoffs team isn&#8217;t completely unrealistic.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">Like other teams in the league, the Mystics are <a href=\"https:\/\/highposthoops.com\/grading-the-washington-mystic-first-steps-promising-rebuild\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">happily building for their future<\/a>. And, like, the Dallas Wings, they&#8217;re finding a lot more success than they bargained on while doing so. Sonia Citron leads the team in scoring with 18.3 points per game; her fellow 2025 All-Star Kiki Iriafen is averaging 15.1 points and has five double-doubles so far this season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6j\">Shakira Austin, who at this point is one of the most experienced players on the team, is also producing at levels she hasn&#8217;t so far in her career. She&#8217;s averaging 13.7 points, 8.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists so far, and on track to continue to improve. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6m\">The Mystics may find even more success soon. The team will next play the Connecticut Sun on Friday, June 26, and then will host the Portland Fire on Sunday, June 28. While it&#8217;s likely the team can make quick work of the Sun, Connecticut will be riding high off their 92-63 win over the Chicago Sky this week, and may hit Washington with renewed energy. Similarly, the Fire are a talented and disruptive team, and they are unlikely to give up a win to Washington easily.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6p\">Still, the Mystics are intriguging this season. They&#8217;re fun to watch and a little unpredictable, but in a way that makes games compelling. They may benefit from the Los Angeles Sparks&#8217; injuries woes (the team announced this week Kelsey Plum will miss at least four weeks of play due to a lower leg injury, and Cameron Brink is also out with a severly sprained ankle) and sneak past the team in the standings, something that could give them a little more to hang on to later this season. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow highposthoops.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=highposthoops.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s fair to say that a lot of people weren&#8217;t sure what to make of the Washington Mystics&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-726333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}