The Washington Mystics are WNBA flamethrowers that even the second-hottest team in the league couldn’t slow down. The latest high-profile victim: the Los Angeles Sparks, who the Mystics crushed, 95-66, in what was supposed to be a potential Finals preview. That was Washington’s 11th win by 20 points or more out of 31 games. Three of those wins were against the projected No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 seeds in the playoffs.
The W Is It: The Mystics have the best WNBA offense ever. Here’s how it works.
Elena Delle Donne is the key to the Mystics’ historic offense … just not the way you’d expect.
Before the game, the Sparks were 7-2 in August, with the league’s second-best net rating and best defense of all teams in the month of August. But the Mystics’ offense tore them to shreds on 54 percent shooting before a full quarter of garbage time.
New Sparks head coach Derek Fisher was defeated while speaking to reporters postgame.
“I don’t think any of [the Mystics’] lineups were better than another,” Fisher said. “They were just better from top to bottom. It didn’t matter whether it was their starting group, big lineup, etc. They were just better.”
The Mystics are the perfect whole of carefully constructed parts, which is why one lineup feels just as powerful as the rest. They’re built around the league’s presumptive MVP and a Hall of Famer-to be in 6’5 Elena Delle Donne, but Washington’s record-breaking offensive system isn’t dependent on her to carry the load. That’s what makes them special.
When Delle Donne is cut off, the ball moves and moves and moves until it lands in the hands of one of D.C.’s deep-ball shooters. That’s something the Sparks learned the hard way after three quarters, as Washington sunk 10 out of 23 deep-ball looks.
In fact, L.A’s zest to shut down Delle Donne played right into the Mystics’ hands. All year, L.A.’s loaded bodies to other teams’ stars, gambling that any team’s second- or third-best scorer won’t beat them from distance. That’s a sensible approach given how much better a WNBA All-Star is compared to a contributing piece to her team.
But you can’t guard the Mystics like any other team in the league. Shutting off Delle Donne’s scoring options only makes her and her team of balanced scorers stronger.
The Mystics are not only on pace to take and make more three-point shots than any other team in WNBA history (nine on 25 tries), but they’re also historically careful with the ball. They’re on pace to set a league record with just 14.6 percent of their possessions resulting in turnovers, and set another league record with an assist ratio of 19.3 percent. Top to bottom, the Mystics are stacked with great and willing passers who buy into head coach Mike Thibault’s system.
When the Mystics set the record for most three-point makes in a game (18) against the Indiana Fever last month, eight players out of a roster of 11 contributed buckets from the perimeter. Thirty of the team’s 37 field goal makes on that night were assisted. Everyone in Washington’s rotation is capable of stepping out beyond the arc, minus board-crashing defensive big LaToya Sanders.
Double teams are hardly effective for a team this crisp with the ball.
The Mystics’ offense plants one big down low, sends a second, more versatile big to roam, and spreads three guards at the top of the key and corners. Quick passes see three or more players touch the ball before threes are launched, leaving little time for defenders to recover off switches or doubles.
That’s why Washington had no trouble when L.A. sent its best defender, Nneka Ogwumike, to suffocate Delle Donne out to the 3-point arc. On each drive, the Sparks collapsed into the paint in an attempt to force the ball out of Delle Donne’s hands. But the Mystics value threes more than any team in the league, so D.C. spread its guards a step further beyond the line and happily obliged with L.A.’s desire for Delle Donne to move the ball on. That difference made it tough for L.A. to close out in time.
The best example of what makes the Mystics so impossible to guard came in the second quarter, when the Sparks attempted to double Delle Donne as she drove towards the paint. As Ogwumike came off Ariel Atkins to assist Candace Parker and pin Delle Donne, Sparks guard Chelsea Gray had to replace her to get a hand in front of Atkins, a 36-percent shooter from deep. With everyone out of rotation, Sanders slipped to the basket and caught an accurate Atkins pass for what could’ve been a layup.
But this is the most lethal offensive team in history, so Sanders passed it all the way back out after Parker and Ogwumike abandoned Delle Donne to instead protect the rim. Then came an EDD splash so predictable, Mystics guard Natasha Cloud already started walking back on defense before the shot went up.
“They really move the ball,” Sparks star and Hall-of-Famer-to-be Candace Parker, said after the game. “They do a good job of finding each other. Natasha Cloud drives with the intention of not scoring, but kicking out. And we weren’t able to stop the penetration early. We were constantly in rotation.”
It was rinse, repeat all night, even with Washington’s second All-Star, Kristi Toliver, missing due to injury.
Washington’s historic run is in part highlighted by Delle Donne’s quest to become the third WNBA player ever to shoot 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from the three-point line and 90 percent from the line. But though Delle Donne is Washington’s top offensive option, her usage rate is just 25.1 percent, No. 12 in the league. In fact, Delle Donne’s teammates get far more open simply playing alongside her, due to the attention she attracts with or without the ball. There’s a reason why Cloud leads the locker room in an echo chamber of goat noises in her direction after every win.
With defenders constantly thinking about where Delle Donne’s headed, the other four players have more room to operate. It’s no wonder wing Aerial Powers, in her first full season with the team, is producing the most efficient numbers of her career: 12 points on 38 percent three-point shooting on four tries per game. For comparison, she shot 27 percent on half the attempts with the Dallas Wings the year before.
The Washington Mystics are the best team in the WNBA because every player in their rotation was made to thrive in an offense based on three-point shooting, spacing, and passing. It works perfectly because the team has one of the most efficient, unicorn-esque stars in league history, but her teammates can operate with a similar effectiveness even when she’s the decoy.
Good luck stopping these Mystics.
And now for more fun stuff
NCAA legend Kelsey Plum came back at the perfect time
The Aces have been struggling, and last week Plum was moved to the bench. The team’s offense hadn’t been in sync for weeks, and a Saturday night matchup between Vegas and the L.A. Sparks had serious playoff implications.
That’s where Plum came to life, scoring 17 fourth-quarter points to push Vegas back to No. 3 in the playoff standings. She was electric!
She teared after the game, and it was an incredible moment.
A shoutout to legends making no-look passes
Please watch Candace Parker:
And then Diana Taurasi:
GOATS!
There’s one week until the playoffs get rolling
We don’t officially know the order yet, but our eight teams are locked in:
1. Washington Mystics
2. Connecticut Sun
3. Las Vegas Aces
4. Los Angeles Sparks
5. Chicago Sky
6. Minnesota Lynx
7. Seattle Storm
8. Phoenix Mercury
Let’s GOOOO!
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