6 moments from the ridiculous final 5 minutes of Mystics-Wings playoff game

In the parameters of their single-elimination play-in game, the Dallas Wings weren’t successful. They lost 86-76 on Wednesday in the first round to the Washington Mystics, concluding their season while their East Coast opponents stay alive for at least one more matchup. But the two teams combined to give us a thrilling fourth quarter — so that’s success for us watching them, at the very least.

It wasn’t even the full fourth quarter, necessarily, but the final five minutes. Let’s go moment by moment here.

This is basically the halfway point, and the Wings trail 71-58. A 13-point lead with less than five minutes remaining usually means the game is over. Instead, Theresa Plaisance hits an and-one turnaround jump shot that has Dallas embarking on a 9-0 run in the following 1:16 in the frame.

At this point, Skylar Diggins-Smith scores a layup coming out of a Washington timeout. This completes the 9-0 run and makes the score 71-67, still in favor of the Mystics. Dallas won’t get closer than four points, unfortunately, and neither team will score for nearly a minute.

Both teams go into a timeout break, and Elena Delle Donne comes out of it looking like she grew Santa’s beard.

You should be able to make out the massive chin bandage that she’ll sport for the final couple minutes of this game. That thing is massive.

OK, it’s no fight, but the Wings’ Aerial Powers and the Mystics’ Tierra Ruffin-Pratt are assigned double technicals. The two players crashed down off an attempted rebound boxout, but it looked like Powers held onto Ruffin-Pratt in a semi-chokehold for a few seconds longer than necessary. The two parties are quickly separated with no real harm done, and the double technical was probably the right call in an incredible, close playoff game. There wasn’t quite enough to penalize either side.

That said, it’s strange the Powers ends up at the line shooting free throws due to a common foul going against Ruffin-Pratt. (Dallas is in the penalty, automatically sending Powers to the line.) If anything, she ends up being the aggressor. It’s an all-around bizarre chain of events.

For those who follow W-less WNBA, you might know there’s a big stir about new Cavaliers guard Isaiah Thomas and the actual circumstances of his health. He has a hip problem that may eventually need surgery to repair his labrum, something that Powers did this offseason. Powers had the surgery in November and was originally slated to return in June, but ended up coming back during late July — a recovery timetable of about eight months.

Just seconds later, Powers hits a Mystic with her forearm after shooting a layup. It certainly looked like it was part of her natural follow through coming down from the shot, but the referees didn’t see it that way. They called a second technical foul, automatically ejecting her from the game.

Up 77-73 in the final minute, Delle Donne hits two free throws, pushes the lead to six points, and Washington hangs on from there. They’ll play another single-elimination game on Sunday before the playoffs reseed with the top two seeds and the two teams that make it through this slate.

After the game, Delle Donne was worried about her chin injury, hoping it didn’t last until her upcoming wedding.

You can’t blame her, especially since she didn’t leave anything to complain about on the court — her 25 points and 11 rebounds made that clear.

It sucks for Dallas, because losing is never good. But from a fan perspective, Mystics-Wings provided as many fireworks as anyone could have asked for, strange referee calls be damned. No wonder the league just hit a six-year high in attendance numbers.