{"id":792013,"date":"2026-07-29T20:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T20:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/792013\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T20:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T20:48:12","slug":"toughness-and-togetherness-mystics-show-playoff-promise-following-three-game-win-streak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/792013\/","title":{"rendered":"Toughness and Togetherness: Mystics show playoff promise following three-game win streak"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON, D.C. (7News) \u2014 The <a href=\"https:\/\/wjla.com\/sports\/mystics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mystics<\/a> may be a young team, but they&#8217;re showing maturity beyond their years after taking down two of the league&#8217;s top teams in the Golden State Valkyries and then the Las Vegas Aces.<\/p>\n<p>The group returned from the All-Star break and delivered another loss to the Connecticut Sun, 92-84.  <\/p>\n<p>Mystics star guard Sonia Citron said it&#8217;s been a balance between toughness and togetherness.  <\/p>\n<p>SEE MORE | <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/aces-mystics-score-e52417467cacdda120d4c2d0824b241a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Austin scores 25 and has go-ahead three-point play as Mystics shock Aces 100-99<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Both two-time All-Stars had double-digit scoring nights \u2014 Citron with 22 points, with Iriafen adding 20 points and 10 rebounds. <\/p>\n<p>Austin added 17 points and six rebounds for the group. <\/p>\n<p>The Mystics veteran reached two major milestones: hitting 1,500 career points and passing Elena Delle Donne (930) for seventh on the franchise\u2019s all-time rebounding list (932), according to the team.<\/p>\n<p>Fans are now referring to the Big Three as the CIA for Citron, Iriafen and Austin.<\/p>\n<p>SEE ALSO | <a href=\"https:\/\/wjla.com\/sports\/mystics\/citron-iriafen-washington-wnba-all-star-game-reserve-sophomore-players-sonia-kiki-eastern-conference-chicago-dc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mystics&#8217; Citron and Iriafen named to this year&#8217;s WNBA All-Star game<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In a post-game interview, Citron told NBA TV that their focus remains on the playoffs. <\/p>\n<p>The team missed the 2025 playoffs after finishing the regular season with an overall record of 16 wins and 28 losses.  <\/p>\n<p>With an average age of just 23.4, this young Mystics squad continues to grow together on and off the court.<\/p>\n<p>That chemistry has them sitting No. 8 in the standings, clinging to the final playoff spot and aiming for a much different finish than last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, D.C. (7News) \u2014 The Mystics may be a young team, but they&#8217;re showing maturity beyond their years&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-792013","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\/792013","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=792013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}