Washington is the WNBA’s last winless team facing up against a top-tier contender.
The Washington Mystics are heading up to the Big Apple to face off against the New York Liberty for some Friday night hoops at Barclays Center.
The New York Liberty possess one of the best rosters, if not the best roster, in the WNBA. The Washington Mystics do not. New York’s reigning MVP Breanna Stewart is flanked by Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones, Courtney Vandersloot and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton in the starting lineup, with solid support pieces like Nyara Sabally, Kayla Thornton and Ivana Dojkić in low-minutes roles off the bench. Washington, meanwhile, employs an imbalanced roster that is an asymmetrical collection of players at different stages of their careers; direction seems to be lacking. In that way, this Mystics roster reminds me of, dare I say it… the late 2010s to early 2020s Wizards.
Washington is coming off a sloppy loss to the Atlanta Dream, while the Liberty are riding a dominant 22/6/9 game from Sabrina that grabbed them a win over the Phoenix Mercury. The Liberty, losers of last year’s Finals, are still one of the WNBA’s elite contenders, so I am not expecting the Mystics to pick up their first win of the season quite yet.
Mystics at Liberty tips off at 7:30 p.m. EST at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.