If I told you that the Washington Mystics would shoot 1-of-13 from the field, and get outrebounded, 18-7 for a single quarter (nine of those by Courtney Paris), you'd probably tell me that Washington would have lost the game.
But that wasn't the case. The Mystics (12-13) beat the Tulsa Shock (8-17), 82-77, and Washington head coach Mike Thibault noted this point when he started his post game presser which you can see above or by clicking here.
First, that last quarter was about as bad as any that I have seen in the game. Nothing was going their way, as Washington allowed a 68-53 lead to start the period whittle away to a 70-69 nailbiter with 2:20 left. So the Mystics only made one free throw by Monique Currie in nearly eight minutes in regulation.
And if you're wondering when the Mystics made a field goal, it was with 45 seconds left int he game when Kara Lawson finally got a bucket to go in. Just a pathetic performance in that last period.
Now that I got that out of the way, the Mystics otherwise had a great first three quarters. In that time frame, they were shooting 47% compared the Shock shooting 35.6% for the period. The Mystics were also outrebounding the Shock 34-25 and there was a great all-around effort on that end of the floor. And then for the whole game, the Mystics were never behind, even considering the fourth quarter from hell.
Statistically, Ivory Latta led the Mystics with 17 points, while Monique Currie added 16 more. All of Currie's points were from free throws.
And for the Shock, Skylar Diggins had a very good performance throughout the game, as she led her team with 19 points. Jordan Hooper also provided nine points off the bench, all from three pointers.
With the victory, the Mystics are now half a game ahead of the Indiana Fever for the second seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race. They will now face the Atlanta Dream Sunday at home to try to get back to .500. And on top of all that, the Mystics have now won five of their last six games. So, despite the bad taste of their fourth quarter, Washington is starting to look pretty good toward the end of the regular season, and the playoffs.
NOTES
- Currie's 16 points on free throws set a WNBA record for the most points scored in a game without scoring a field goal.
- If the Mystics make the postseason in 2014, this would be the second time in franchise history when they would have made the postseason in consecutive seasons. The last time this happened was in the 2009 and 2010 seasons.
- The Mystics have had some paltry in-game attendance since the 2011 season. But there was a pretty good crowd, about as good of a crowd as I've seen for a non-kiddie game since Thibault became head coach. There was a very high number of girls basketball teams in attendance, so that also helped fill seats. But there were just more people in attendnace.
- There were noticeable cheers for each shot Skylar Diggins made, so let's also be honest. She is also a primary reason why fans came to watch, if not THE reason. This plays into my "Teams aren't going to compete until they have a star" rule.
- This was the Mystics' Pride Night as well, but I only knew it because of banner ads I saw on SB Nation sites.