After a wholly unexpected 2-0 start, the league’s gravitational forces have slowly pulled the Washington Mystics down to the mean.
However, a 3-3 start is miles better than last year’s 0-12. Behind the headline-worthy play of rookies Kiki Iriafen and Sonia Citron, the Mystics are playing just good enough to build choke-able leads—and then choke them away. That’s better than nothing, but a comfortable 83-77 win over the Indiana Fever on Wednesday night will hopefully trend Washington back towards the win column.
About those leads…
Let’s get the bad out of the way.
Against the Connecticut Sun, the Mystics blew a five-point lead with less than five minutes remaining. They blew a nine-point lead against the Golden State Valkyries. Worst of all, they blew a 12-point second-half lead, which stayed close to double digits in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter, in an epic collapse against the Las Vegas Aces. Their struggles with maintaining leads is an ironically perfect…
