The Washington Mystics and Atlanta Dream battled it out into the final week of the season for playoff seeding, but in the end Atlanta came away with the No. 4 seed and homecourt advantage for the first round. The Dream may have that edge but they dropped two of their three regular-season matchups against the Mystic and they'll have the work cut out for them in this series.
Angel Reese improved significantly in her first season in Atlanta and was, at times, a dominant interior force. However, she really struggled with Shakira Austin, Kiki Iriafen, Lauren Betts and the size of Washington's frontline. Reese averaged 15.3 rebounds per game against the Mystics, including more than 6 on the offensive glass, but she shot 30.6 percent from the field. The Dream will need her to control the glass and potentially use her physicality and aggressiveness to keep pressure on the Mystics and maybe even get them into foul trouble. But this was her toughest opposing matchup in the regular season and — even if Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray go off from the perimeter — they'll need more efficiency from her than they got in the regular season.
For both teams, perimeter shooting is going to be key to creating space for their interior players to thive. Sonia Citron had a down season shooting the ball but hit 50 percent of her 3s against the Mystics. If she gets off to a hot start, it will just make things easier for Iriafen and Austin working around the basket.
Score
Live game tracker and play-by-play
Box score: Mystics vs. Dream player stats and team stats
Game leaders
Add us as a preferred source on Google