{"id":822807,"date":"2026-08-23T04:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T04:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/822807\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T04:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T04:54:16","slug":"mystics-start-long-road-journey-at-fire-with-playoff-berth-at-stake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/822807\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystics start long road journey at Fire with playoff berth at stake"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Mystics<\/a> open a six-game trip Sunday in Portland, with a good chance they could clinch a WNBA playoff berth before they return home to the nation’s capital.<\/p>\n

That’s because the first five of those road games are against teams who are trying to catch them.<\/p>\n

Up first for the Mystics (21-15) will be the Fire<\/a> (15-21), who are currently ninth in the standings — the top eight teams make the postseason.<\/p>\n

Despite one of the youngest rosters in the league, the Mystics are in seventh place and close to their first postseason appearance since 2023.<\/p>\n

“I can just tell team-wise, the confidence, especially from our rookies, (is different) from Game 1 to now,” second-year forward Kiki Iriafen told The IX Sports. “… I think that’s something that has been really great for our team. … You can definitely tell when they go out there, they’re not scared. They’re very comfortable.”<\/p>\n

Guard Sonia Citron leads the Mystics with 16.9 points and 4.1 assists per game. Center Shakira Austin adds 16.6 points and a team-high 9.5 rebounds and Iriafen averages 15.1 points and 9.3 boards.<\/p>\n

The expansion Fire have also exceeded expectations. They’ve won four of their past six games, with one of those defeats against league-leading Minnesota.<\/p>\n

The other came Friday, an 82-79 loss to Toronto on a neutral court in Vancouver, B.C. The Fire blew a double-digit lead, committing 26 fouls and sending the Tempo to the free-throw line 33 times.<\/p>\n

“Want to make sure we learn from this one because we want to finish the season on the high and (Friday) we didn’t bring it,” Fire coach Alex Sarama said.<\/p>\n

Carla Leite tops the Fire with 15.5 points and 6.2 assists per game.<\/p>\n

The teams have split their previous two meetings, both in Washington.<\/p>\n

The Mystics claimed a 124-123 victory in four overtimes on June 28 as Citron scored 32 points, including the go-ahead basket with 21.4 seconds remaining. That tied the league record for longest game.<\/p>\n

The Fire took a less-thrilling 75-56 win July 16 as Leite scored a team-high 14 points. Portland limited the Mystics to 29% shooting from the field, including 2 of 21 on 3-pointers, and forced 19 turnovers.<\/p>\n

–Field Level Media<\/p>\n

\n Copyright 2026 STATS LLC and Field Level Media. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Field Level Media is strictly prohibited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Mystics open a six-game trip Sunday in Portland, with a good chance they could clinch a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[12077,99,8253,434],"class_list":["post-822807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-portland-fire","tag-sports","tag-washington-mystics","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822807","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=822807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}