The Night of the 3-Point Shot

Let's start with the obvious....the Mystics obliterated the San Antonio Stars 91 -79. We could talk about the game play by play, but for that you can review the box scores. I want to focus on 3 important aspects of tonight's game....

1. the Stars were awful;
2. the Mystics are playing in "Playoff" form;
3. the 3 point shot could not be stopped, period!!!!!

Okay, first the Stars were more than bad, they were pitiful. This represents a six game losing streak for a team that is assured not to have a playoff spot. And while the Mystic's 3 point shot was on fire, the Stars's 3 point shot was just a fizzle. And the worst part, they kept trying to make it work. If I didn't know better, I would have thought it was ploy. Their outside shots were so off, it was a suprise to me (and the Mystics for a minute) when they finally gave it up late in the 2nd quarter and early in the 4th to start driving into the paint. Although, to be fair, this may have been used to test bench players as one of their lead players, Vicki Johnson played a mere 13:21 minutes.


This leads us to the second aspect. The Mystics played well. I am optimistic about our chances in the 1st round of the Eastern Conference Championship, if we bring the defense of this game, which demonstrated agility and flexibity to defend against the game being played. The Mystics drove this point home with Stars, as they kept the Stars out of the paint and aggressively rebounded their poorly executed outside jumper. They are playing well as a team, on offense they had 25 assist on 34 completed field goals. On individual recognition, the headlines will credit AB (Alana Beard) for her 22 points and 5 assist, but I have to give it up to Chastiy Melvin, who made her presence felt under the basket scoring 18 points. However, the real story is her 6 of 7 free throws. For a player who ranks 17th in the league on free throws, shooting 66%, I was glad to see her shooting well from the line. (Melvin ranks 5th in WNBA in field goal percentage). All credit should be given for her free throw performance. All I can say, is "you go, girl" I want to see that in the playoffs against the Sun.

Now, let's get to the real success of the game...the Mystic's 3-point shot. Credit goes to the 4 (Nikki T, AB, D-Nasty and Coco) of the 5 starters who shot the 3 point shot at 50% or greater. This contributed greatly to all five starters scoring in double digits for first time this season.

Now, for the Award:
In an effort to highlight players who are not getting the credit they deserve. I will award one player each game, with the blacklaw96 blog "Highlight Award". Most often this will go to the player, who has overcome or improved on some weakness in their game.

In the Mystics v. Stars, the Highlight Award goes to (drum roll, please)
CHASITY MELVIN for her 6 of 7 FT in this game.

Honoralbe Mention to Nikki Teasley for her double - double (14 pts and 11 assts).