Mystics fall to Sabrina Ionescu, Liberty in WNBA playoff opener
NEW YORK — Brittney Sykes stood in a hallway outside the Washington Mystics’ locker room at Barclays Center and summed up her team’s 90-75 Game 1 loss to the New York Liberty on Friday night with one word: “Effort.”
The Mystics took the floor to open their postseason and couldn’t miss. Their first four attempts from four different players all found the bottom of the net.
That lasted just 10 minutes. When the Mystics’ offense went cold, the intangibles — loose balls, getting back on defense, chasing down rebounds — became even more important. And that hard-to-define category also belonged to the Liberty, which thoroughly outplayed the Mystics in the opener of this best-of-three series. Game 2 is Tuesday in Brooklyn.
“Effort,” Sykes said. “Loose balls; 50-50s; offensive rebounds. That’s all want. Not to say we didn’t want it, but they wanted it more and it showed. It was as simple as that.”
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The seventh-seeded Mystics split the regular season series with the Liberty, which dropped to the No. 2 seed last week when Sykes hit a buzzer-beater on this same floor. Mystics guard Natasha Cloud jubilantly celebrated by waving to the Brooklyn crowd as she left the court.
Cloud had four points in nearly 32 minutes Friday, but added eight rebounds and eight assists. Myisha Hines-Allen led the Mystics with 21 points and Sykes added 16. But the Mystics never found an answer for Sabrina Ionescu, who had a game-high 29 that included seven three-pointers, a franchise playoff record.
New York dominated the second half and never trailed after halftime as Washington’s offense floundered. The pace was high early as the Mystics got out in transition and forced the Liberty defense to shift and leave shooters open. Things slowed down after that quarter as the Mystics struggled with transition defense and allowed 19 second-chance points.
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“We got probably too many possessions where we came down and it was kind of one action and then look at each other,” Mystics Coach Eric Thibault said. “But I thought the biggest thing that changed after the first quarter was our rebounding. I think they had one offensive board the first quarter, 13 the rest of the game. It's hard to get in transition when they are getting put-backs and kick-out threes off offensive boards.”
Two-time MVP Elena Delle Donne never found her offensive rhythm and shot just 5 for 12 from the field for 11 points.
“This rehab for me that I’m going through right now, it’s a process and it’s just about me trusting the process,” said Hines-Allen, who had offseason knee surgery. “And right now I’m peaking at the right time, which is important.”
Washington had an 8-0 run early in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 71-65, but Ionescu quelled the rally with two three-pointers to push the lead to 12 as the crowd erupted. That sequence essentially put the game away.
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“We’ve just got to remember our schemes,” Sykes said, “and we’ve got to understand and know personnel and who’s who and understand that she’s better putting the ball on the floor, for us, than her getting hot from the arc. She led the damn league in threes this season. I don’t know why we just let her shoot the damn ball like that.
“It’s always going to be frustrating when you know the solution to the problem and you just don’t do it.”
Every time the Mystics crept within single digits, the Liberty had an answer. Jonquel Jones had a double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds and Betnijah Laney totaled 19 points. League MVP candidate Breanna Stewart had a slow night with 10 points on 3-for-16 shooting.
“I live for this opportunity,” Ionescu said after the game. “… I was kind of just in that zone, locked in. The basket felt really big when I was shooting.”
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Sykes talked before the game about limiting poor stretches, and the second quarter was one of those, the type of stretch the Mystics have weathered a few times throughout the season.
Washington shot a blistering 57.1 percent from the field in the first quarter and led, 27,23, as all five starters scored.
Laney kept the Liberty afloat early as Stewart was held scoreless, regularly getting in the right place at the right time.
Things flipped in the second quarter as the Mystics slowed down offensively and the Liberty was the one getting contributions from everyone. All five of the New York starters scored in that second quarter, and a 6-1 run to close the quarter, capped by Laney’s buzzer-beating layup, gave New York the halftime advantage.
“The first quarter was like, oh, here we go, they might get 120,” Liberty Coach Sandy Brondello said. “But we knew we were going to get better defensively and it’s just a few little tweaks that helped us.”
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