The Washington Mystics are messing up everyone’s plans.
Sunday’s WNBA Rivals Week slate begins with the league’s still-reigning premier rivalry, with the Las Vegas Aces visiting the New York Liberty (12:30 p.m. ET, ABC). However, with a less-than-24-hour turnaround since their Saturday tip off, the Aces, rather justifiably, might be punting this one, as A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young all are questionable to play due to rest.
Then, the No. 1 and No. 2 picks in the 2026 WNBA Draft are scheduled
to meet in in Minneapolis, with the Dallas Wings and hopefully-healthy Azzi Fudd taking on the Minnesota Lynx and Rookie of the Year frontrunner Olivia Miles (3:30 p.m. ET, NBC). It’s also a homestate game from Paige Bueckers, as well as a return game for former Lynx Jessica Shepard and Alanna Smith.
Finally, there’s the battle for California supremacy, with NorCal’s Golden State Valkyries facing SoCal’s Los Angeles Sparks (7 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Yet, the most intriguing action is happening outside the national TV spotlight, with the Mystics, aiming for their seventh win in a row, hosting the Phoenix Mercury (3 p.m. ET, WNBA League Pass).
Fittingly, that seventh-straight win could come against the team that had designs on stealing the final spot in the WNBA playoff field from Washington.
By making a trade deadline move for Kelsey Plum, it widely was presumed that, if Phoenix was able to win enough to make a postseason push, it was Washington that they would surpass for the No. 8 seed. The Mystics, however, have more than secured their postseason position, vaulting to No. 6 in the league standings. The Mercury, in contrast, are 1-2 with Plum, good for just 12th in the standings and 7.5 games out of a playoff berth.
Instead of a game that could have had significant playoff seeding implications, Mercury-Mystics sets up as an opportunity for DC’s youngsters to further prove that whatever presumptions or plans the rest of the league—and even their own organization—had for them, they don’t care.
They’re here and they’re here to win, embracing an identity as a hard-playing, defensive-first team that no opponent should want to see in postseason.
It’s worth emphasizing that the Mystics haven’t just been banking wins against the league’s lesser teams.
Their streak began at Ballhalla, where they won the second of a two-game set against the Valkyries. They followed that up with a home win over the Aces, and the All-Star break did not stall their winning momentum. They’ve since defeated the Connecticut Sun, captured two-straight victories over the Wings, with the second one coming with a 20-point comeback, and prevailed against the Atlanta Dream.
Although Washington is third in defensive rating for the season, with a mark of 103.2, it’s an uptick on the offensive end that has driven their recent ascent. A season-long offensive rating of 101.2, which ranks 14th in the league, is up to 112.8 over their six-game streak. If extended over the full season, that would be the third-best offense in the league.
Encouragingly, their offensive improvement doesn’t seem entirely unsustainable.
While their 3-point shooting is unlikely to stay at 38.4 percent, it is conceivable that DC can be better than their season-long sub-30 percent mark from behind the arc. Critically, the Mystics have also cut down on their turnovers, going from a league-worst 16.3 per game for the season to a more manageable 13.7 per game during their win streak. Washington also has doubled down on their strengths. Already the league’s most-prolific free throw merchants, they’ve been earning even more frequent forays to the line. They also continue to dominant the interior, feasting on points in the paint, owning the offensive glass and cashing in on second-chance opportunities.
Clean up the margins, make a few more shots and outwork everybody. That’s Washington’s simple and effective, if not always elegant, offensive recipe that has them on the franchise’s longest winning streak since 2019.
And now, they’ll be enhanced by a vet who embodies the gritty, fighting spirit that has driven them to six-straight victories: Betnijah Laney-Hamilton.
Washington claimed Laney-Hamilton off waivers on Saturday after New York decided to part ways with the vet whose role had been minimized this season.
The Mystics, like many analysts, observers and fans from around the league, are signaling that they believe that the old Betnijah—the player who helped build the culture of the Liberty in Brooklyn before coming through at key moments during the 2024 title run—is still in there, ready, willing and able to impart her experience, on top of on-court contributions, on youthful Washington.
While Laney-Hamilton is unlikely to suit up on Sunday, what do you expect her to add to the Mystics when she does make her DC debut?
How can she help Washington continue their winning ways? And, how high do you think the Mystics can climb in the standings, and how big of a threat might they be in a playoff series?
