Two of the hottest teams in the WNBA during the second half of the season — the
second-seeded Atlanta Dream and third-seeded Washington Mystics — will square
off in a best-of-five semifinal playoff series beginning Sunday afternoon in
Atlanta.
Game 2 is set for Tuesday night in Atlanta. Games 3 and 4 (if necessary) are in
Washington on Friday and Sept. 2. If the series goes five games, it will
conclude Sept. 4 in Atlanta.
This series was in the making for the past month as both teams played lights
out.
Atlanta was the best team in the WNBA during the second half of the season,
going 15-2 in its final 17 games while forging a franchise-record eight-game
winning streak.
That streak, however, was snapped by Washington as the Mystics closed out the
regular season by capturing eight of their final nine games. Throw in
Washington’s second-round blowout win over Los Angeles and the Mystics enter the
semifinals having just one loss in their last 10 games.
“It’s going to be tough. Washington is a great offensive team,” Atlanta guard
Renee Montgomery said. “They have people who can go off for 30 on any given
night. When you have explosive players like that, you really have to be on your
toes.”
Neither team has won an WNBA title. Atlanta has three finals appearances but has
yet to win a game in the championship series, and Washington is the only active
franchise in the WNBA that has never appeared in the finals.
The Dream eliminated the Mystics in the first round on their way to the finals
in 2010 and 2013. Atlanta leads the all-time postseason series between the teams
4-1.
Atlanta also won this year’s regular-season series, taking two of three from
Washington.
All the games were played during a three-week stretch in July and with all-star
guard Angel McCoughtry in the Atlanta lineup before her season-ending knee
injury in early August.
The Dream closed out the regular-season by winning their final three games and
holding on to the No. 2 seed, giving them a double-bye into the semifinals.
They’ve been out of action since beating Las Vegas 93-78 last Sunday.
“Our consistency at the defensive end gave us chances to win games,” Atlanta
coach Nicki Collen said. “When we found our offensive flow, we truly became fun
to watch.”
The Mystics had to secure a playoff win to get to the semifinals, and they did
so, rolling past Los Angeles 96-64 on Thursday in the single-elimination
quarterfinals.
Washington had six players score in double figures – the entire starting lineup
plus Tianna Hawkins off the bench – and set franchise records for points (96),
assists (28) and margin of victory (32) in a playoff game.
“We know what we’re supposed to do to play against them,” Mystics coach Mike
Thibault said of the Dream. “We played them twice late in the season, lost a
close one and won (the other), and our team has a good feel for what we’re up
against.
“When you’re on the road to start a series, you actually can put more pressure
on the home team. They know if you come in and steal one of the first two games,
let alone maybe both, the pressure has been put on them. That’s kind of a nice
position to be in right now for a team like ours.”
