Mercury vs. Mystics final score: Phoenix's win streak gets to 11, beats Washington 90-78

The Phoenix Mercury got an 11th straight win, and an 8th straight win at home, by defeating the Washington Mystics, 90-78.

The key to this game is that Phoenix had a dominant first quarter, where they outscored them, 32-17. During the period, they shot 11-of-18 from the field, and outrebounded the Mystics, 12 to 4.

In the remaining three quarters, the Mystics actually outscored the Mercury 61-58, but they were never able to get the lead to below single digits until a very brief time in the fourth quarter when Bria Hartley made a three point shot to make the score 73-65. This capped off a 10-0 run for the Mystics which started in the last three minutes of the third quarter.

After that run, Penny Taylor made a shot, then Griner made another which was a dunk, and then Bonner made a layup from a sweet pass by Diana Taurasi. At that point, welp.

I know Griner dunked in this game, and I'll show you what led to that in another piece shortly. But here's the main takeaway here for both teams from my view. To look at the box score in detail, click here.

For the Mercury, this team is on a mission to show that it's big time and ready to win a championship, considering that they didn't do so last year given the hype that didn't materialize. Phoenix in many ways showing us exactly what some pundits thought that they would do in 2013, and I'm really impressed to see that this team could be on pace to win 30 games this season given the way things are going.

For the Mystics, they played pretty well after that first quarter at least when you look at the numbers. But it also shows that they're at least a couple years away from being a team that's as star-studded and as talented as the Mercury.