{"id":856675,"date":"2026-09-22T14:32:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T14:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/856675\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T14:32:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T14:32:21","slug":"wnba-the-mystics-matching-their-win-record-matters-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/856675\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA: The Mystics\u2019 matching their win record matters\u2014here\u2019s why"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sunday afternoon, the Washington Mystics put up their second-straight victory of at least 15 points since returning from the FIBA World Cup.<\/p>\n

After beating the Chicago Sky by 30 points last Thursday, they took their dominance to Indiana and beat the No. 5-seed Fever 93-77.<\/p>\n

Although the Mystics secured their spot in the postseason many weeks ago, they continue to find truly meaningful wins. The win over Indy, in fact, carried extra significance: Now 26-16, they\u2019ve tied their franchise record for wins in a season\u2014and that matters.<\/p>\n

These Mystics can dream of ascending beyond the standard of 2019<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The Mystics won their only WNBA Finals in 2019, following a 26-win regular season. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The last time the Mystics reached 26 wins was in 2019: the lone championship campaign in 28 seasons of Mystics basketball.<\/p>\n

Before this year, they had only broken 20 wins four times and 25 wins once. The 2019 season was still played under the 34-game regular season format, so admittedly their 26-8 record was more notable than today\u2019s 26-16. But history is history regardless of some parameters.<\/p>\n

This Mystics team, in all of their youth, has proven an ability to contend with the league\u2019s best teams. They haven\u2019t summited the stratosphere of dominance touched by Elena Delle Donne and Emma Meesseman, but they\u2019re talented enough to win postseason games, and sometimes that\u2019s all you can ask for. Now they have to stay hot through the beginning of October and masquerade the maturity demanded by playoff basketball. Under the right circumstances, they could find themselves as a legitimate dark horse Finals contender.<\/p>\n

Arguably more important than their immediate championship potential is their future outlook\u2014and oh how it\u2019s changed since just two seasons ago.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve tied the franchise record behind not just any young core, but the youngest team in league history. Up until they signed Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, 26-year old Michaela Onyenwere was their oldest player. Eight of their 14 players are rookies, and three more are in their second professional season.<\/p>\n

A win record for this Mystics team isn\u2019t just a passing affirmation of their current success. It\u2019s a courageous picture of their future.<\/p>\n

Shakira Austin, Sonia Citron, and Kiki Iriafen have the chance to mold DC into the center of the WNBA, and an early playoff run will just sharpen their ability to contend with the league\u2019s best. At the rate the Mystics are improving, it\u2019s not unlikely that we\u2019ll see another 2019-esque season in the near future.<\/p>\n

The Mystics remain in the middle of an unpredictable battle for playoff seeding<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The Mystics would face the Golden State Valkyries in the playoffs if today\u2019s seeding holds true. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Mystics sit as the current No. 6 with two games remaining in the regular season.<\/p>\n

Losses by the New York Liberty and Dallas Wings on Monday night, give them one less loss than those teams; they\u2019re one game behind the Fever. Washington also holds an important seeding tiebreaker over Indiana after winning the season series 2-1, hence the magnitude of Sunday\u2019s win.<\/p>\n

Also aiding head coach Sydney Johnson and his troop is their final two opponents: the Connecticut Sun (10-32) and Chicago Sky (15-27). Washington is 2-0 against Chicago and 1-1 against Connecticut, but their loss to the Sun was a clear outlier in what has been a solid season against struggling teams. While the Mystics have a strong chance to finish the season with two more wins, Indiana has to play league-leading Minnesota twice to close out their schedule. New York has another game against the No. 4-seed Atlanta Dream. Dallas finishes up against the Seattle Storm.<\/p>\n

There is clearly so much at stake for a handful of teams that have already clinched a postseason berth. It\u2019s hard to project exact matchups with so much up in the air. Even the very top seeds could shift, especially if Minnesota flops against the Fever and allows the Golden State Valkyries to insert themselves into the No. 1 seed.<\/p>\n

Washington will surely be monitoring the battle for the top four seeds just as much as they\u2019ll be prepping for their own final two games. The Mystics are 1-2 on the season against each of the top three teams: Minnesota, Golden State, and Las Vegas. The only of the three to truly blow them out of a game was Golden State, and they\u2019ve actually performed better against Minnesota than Las Vegas (although Napheesa Collier didn\u2019t suit up in any of the three matchups with Washington).<\/p>\n

The Mystics are 2-1 against the Dream, who are looking to hold onto the No. 4 spot but could potentially move into third with another win over the Liberty and an Aces loss. Atlanta should be Washington\u2019s preferred playoff opponent, but the season won\u2019t be a scratch if they aren\u2019t able to secure a first-round southern getaway.<\/p>\n

Regardless of who is on the other side, the Mystics know that they have stolen wins from each of the top four teams, and they\u2019ll be looking to reprise that success next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Sunday afternoon, the Washington Mystics put up their second-straight victory of at least 15 points since returning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-856675","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\/856675","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=856675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}