🔥 Washington Mystics ran out of gas against the Las Vegas Aces | Season 2025 GAME #4

🔥 Washington Mystics ran out of gas against the Las Vegas Aces | Season 2025 GAME #4

The Washington Mystics took on the Las Vegas Aces on Friday, May the 23rd. This is the postgame recap where we talk Mystics basketball. All right, so in this matchup, this was a nailbiter at the end. However, the Mystics look really, really good for three quarters. But the season team, the team with the most veterans that have had productive careers, pulled it out in the very last minutes of the game. Um, the Mystics look really, really good for three quarters without having uh key contributors. So, in this game, the Mystics were without uh Aaliyah Edwards. She hasn’t played a game as of to this point this season. Um, and she’s out with a lower back contusion. We also were were without Shakira Austin. She’s in the concussion protocol. She took a nasty fall during the previous game um against the Golden State Valkyries. And you know, they’re they’re checking her out, make sure she’s okay. She looked okay on the sideline, but you know, precaution, precaution, precaution, right? especially with head injury. All right. So, uh unbeknownst well actually and of course we’re out uh George Amore with the ACL injury, but unbeknownst to us all, our star player Britain Sykes Slim had a lower right leg injury, which probably could have been an ankle injury and they decided to keep her out of the game. Um it was a lastm minute injury update and uh you know it could have happened in the uh pregame workouts or you know getting ready for the game. We really don’t know the answers to that yet. Um so we’re waiting to hear what’s really going on, but we know that Britney Sykes didn’t play last night. Um and with that being said, I thought we were going to be in for a long night. I thought we was going to be in for a long night anyway, but without Britney Sykes, that’s a lot of scoring. It’s a lot of uh free throw shooting. It’s a lot of possessions um that won’t be available. However, our rookie duo, our rookie duo, they really brought their a game tonight. Um or actually yesterday. So, it was great to see uh the team in action and um yeah, we’re going to we’re going to um now we’re going to talk about what we observed in the game. All right. So, second here. All right. So the the Mystics lost this game in the fourth quarter. We had the game. It looked like we looked like we were going to get the victory. Um we beat them for the first three quarters of the game, but that’s when things got a little ar. But let’s talk about from the beginning to the end. We have struggled in our first three games to win first quarters. Uh but we came out and we did what we supposed to do. We knew that if we can win the first quarter and the second quarter, we got a chance to get a victory. So, we looked really good, but we got to win. We got to win more. We got to win, especially against a top flight team like the Aces. We have to win all four courts. It’s no end ins or buts about. All right. So, in the first quarter, we were up by two points and then we went on a great run in the second quarter. In second quarter, um the score was 24 to 17 in that second quarter worth of points. So, we were definitely up at halftime. Um, our largest lead for the game, I believe, was about uh seven was it 13 points or something of that nature. Um, but yeah, we we really look good e even with being without our star player. Um, but let’s talk more about the action here. All right. So, as you can see, this is the first matchup of four matchups against the Aces this season. We have another one coming up next month and uh we will be back out in Vegas for that game. And hopefully uh we’ll be we’ll have all of our players hopefully for that particular matchup. All right. So, Kiki Uran had a great game. She looked like she looked like Asia Wilson 2.0. You know, the student versus the teacher type of deal. Kiki Urfan ended up with 17 points, 13 rebounds, and nine rebounds were on the defensive side of the ball. So, She had a great game. Six of 14, five or six from the free throw line. Great game. Great game. Sutton had a good game, too. She was very aggressive throughout this game. She had to be since Britney wasn’t there. So, she took that role of being a aggressive shot taker. Um, she had 10 points. Um, he had some uh I would say we needed a we needed somebody to really orchestrate the offense and Sug is a great is a good combo guard, but it really exposed that. Hey, we we need another guard. We we need another guard like really bad. But we’re going to talk about more. We’ll talk more about that in a few. All right. So, Sonia Citron 19 points. She shot like she shot a good amount of of uh of shots tonight or yesterday, which is really really good. It’s really good to see uh her her get into her actions and and be more aggressive with her shooting. Um, so it was it was great to see that. Let’s get this situated here. All right, let’s do it like that. All right, so um it was great to see Sonia Citron be get back to her efficient shooting while increasing the amount of shots she shot. So it was great. She shot four, six from the three-point line, three for three from the free throw line. So, it was great. Five rebounds, three assists. She’s just a spectacular player. She’s more than a role player. She does everything. So, she’s going to be great. So great for our future. Um, all right. So, Jay Melbourne at 14 points. I call her little Sonic cuz when she get to getting those little feet just gone. She’s just gone. She’s just out of there. She shoots out of there like a cannon. So that’s Little Sonic to me. All right. So she had 14 points. Uh she had five fouls. So she played as tough as she could. You know, you’re playing against perennial allstars pretty much their whole starting lineup against the Aces. So, I cannot fault them too much for this. They did they played a great game. It’s just at the very very end. Um, yeah. So, let’s talk about this as well. We only had eight available players. Eight. Eight. We have to do something about this roster. We got to we got to be able to have they people need breaks. You know, they did great, but I think if we had a steady guard that could come off the bench, we would have we could have got this game. We could have got this game. All right. So, for the Las Vegas Aces, uh let’s see here. Jackie Young had 25 points along with five rebounds, three assists. Kelsey Gray has 17 points. four rebounds, two assists, and the big bad Asia Wilson had 15 points and 12 rebounds. Such a similar statline to Kiki. When I say they were pretty much parallel type of players that’s at the top end of at the at the at the ceiling of what Kiki can be, it can be Asia. It can be that type of play because Tiki’s jump shot is automatic. I mean, it’s automatic. Then she has proven me wrong. She is a dynamic rebounder. She is she’s going to average a double double this season. And this is just the very first season. She’s just figuring it out. So once she locks it in and knows exactly what’s what, it’s going to be a problem. So, um, I want to I want to see how the future holds when Aaliyah Edwards comes back, but we can have a twoheaded monster down low. You know, we just instead of running a center and a forward, we might need to run the two forwards together and just let them cook because you got to pick your poison. You got to pick your poison. So, let’s see how this works out. And let’s see here. All right. So, you have um Yeah. So, Leah Edwards and Asia Wilson had I’m sorry. No, I’m sorry. Kiki Uran and Asia such a similar a similar game. Um just pretty much identical. So, Kiki shot six for 14. Asia Wilson shot five for 13. So identical. A Wilson four for four for free throws. Kiki five for six from free throws. Kiki 13 rebounds. Asia 12 rebounds. Yeah. The only the only thing was where there was a difference in the production was the assist. So AJ Wilson had five assists compared to Kiki with two assists. I’m not mad at it. I am not mad at it. It is okay. It is all right. Um, and then the points, Kiki with 17, Asia with with uh 15 points. If Kiki turns out to be an equivalent of Asia Wilson for the Mystics, we hit the lottery. We It is okay. We did great. Wow. Just say wow. And then Sonia Citron with her production. Wow, the future is so bright. So bright. All right, so now let’s talk about some areas of improvement for the Washington Mystic. Like I said many times, we need a guard that comes off the bench that can facilitate score, play good defense, and just make great and good matter of fact make good decisions. It can be we would we would want great decision. Let’s just say good decision. Um now let’s talk about um let’s let’s talk more about what happened in the game. Talk more about what happened in the game. So um again we had players that were out. Here we go. though where we lost the game because we pretty much beat the aces in team stats just like we did against the Golden State Valkyrie. We just got to figure out it’s just small. It’s just key points where we’re just losing the game because we shot 50% from the three-point line to the aes shooting 24%. Really? Come on. We should win a game shooting like that. We should have. But at the end of the day, it’s all about everything has to be clicking against top tier shooting team or top tier team. All right, so field goal percentage, we shot 40% to the 34%. We should have got them. We should have got them. All right, so uh they shot better free throws than us. And I think that was an issue for us. It’s been an issue for us this season. um been an issue for us. Let’s see here. They play better defense than us. They had nine steals compared to our two steals and they had six blocks compared compared to our three. If we was full fully staffed, this definitely should have been a different game. We probably would be 4 and 0 right now if we were healthy. Uh but the basketball guards are not leaning in our favor at the moment. And we also goes back to having better guard play. We have 17 turnovers to the 10 turnovers and we conceded to 17 points. So pretty much every turnover turned into a point. We cannot win that way. We had a similar issue with the previous game. We can’t do that. We got to do better than that. Um I think of course if Britney Sykes played this should have been better. This should have been a better deal. Um but our largest lead was 12 to their largest lead is three which is the ending score. The difference in the ending score 75 to 72. So that fourth quarter they locked in on us and they played like the champions they are and we played like the younger team that we are. However, with us even being a young team, we’re still a problem. We can still give the best teams a run for their money. We just got to get maybe one or two more pieces and we can really really shake some things up here this season. But the question is, what is the direction? What is the goal from coach Sydney Johnson and our GM Jim Milawat? Is it, hey, are we, you know, we’re just going to get through the season to get to more accomplished players that are coming into the draft next season or are we just going to try to go for it right now? That’s that’s the like, hey, what what are we doing? What’s going on? Um, but I think if this next individual that we are going to talk about um, sticks with us, then I think that’s going to tell the table what direction we’re trying to go. All right, so let’s talk about Lucy Alson. In the game, she had four points, five rebounds, one assist. That looks pretty good, right? Especially a guard coming off the bench and she’s a rookie. Um, but there were key instances in the game where she’s killing us. We got to do better. She got to do better or we might have to really consider going in a different direction. All right, so let’s talk about it. So Lucy Austin again is a guard out of Iowa. Um he’s averaging for the season uh two and a half points or one and a half rebounds and less than one assist a game. All right. So, let’s talk about her shooting percentage and she has to do better. One thing that coach Sydney Johnson spoke of before the season started was Lucy Olson’s has to be more consistent with her shooting because she can be a mid-range assassin. she can get to a spot and and lift off and shoot. Um, she just has to do better. She has to be more consistent with her jump shot. Um, also she got to be more consistent with her layups. She blew at least two wide open layups, like wide open layups. And you know, I’m not sure if she’s getting excited or or not focusing or what is going on, but she is dope. That’s four points. That four points could have sworn the game. Um, she’s not the only one that had some miscues throughout this game, but when we look at her shooting percentage, this can be this can make or break some some games. Um Lucy Austin is currently shooting for the season 30% from the field, shooting 20% from the free throw line, shooting 50% from the free throw line. You got to do better than this. Come on. That they’re giving you the opportunity. Take advantage and get this together. Come on. you got to do better than this. Um yeah, so missing those that that can really hurt um going forward. So if this continues, you might need to bring in some bodies, you know, who knows? Um, but let’s, you know, let’s see how it goes cuz I, you know, I want the the Mystics to to be great and I want to see better play from the team. I do. I really do. Uh, but as of right now, we have a lot of great things going for us. So, the Mystics have uh two great go I’m sorry, two great rookies that are killing it right now, but we’re shooting oursel in the foot. We can we can be great. We just got to do better. Um I’m happy it was a close game. Um that’s looking like that’s going to be the tell of the tape for the season. We have a lot of close games. We might not get beat up too bad. We got to get our people back. We got to get back cohesion going to see how every all the pieces fit together once they’re fully back. But Kiki and uh Tona, their synergy is is is amazing. They It’s like they they know what they’re doing. I like it. So again, the Las Vegas Aces. Check this out. In the very last seconds of the game, um this is the game four [Music] of the WNBA season. We’re playing again on Sunday. We have a matchup against uh who do we play? We are playing Phoenix Mercury. So, this is going to be a very good test. Another great test. All of these games are tests because our next, let’s see here, five games we’re playing Juggernaut teams in five games. Okay, so we have Phoenix on Sunday. Wednesday, we play Caitlyn Clark in the Indiana Fever. Then on Friday, we have a game against New York. And New York is uh that’s a that’s a great game. And then that’s a home game. So we have two home games. Then we’re going back on the road June 3rd to play against Indiana. and then Thursday playing against New York June 5th. Yeah. So, we got some games. We got some action-packed games coming up. So, we’ll see how this goes and we’ll see what we do tomorrow in Phoenix against the Mercury. That game comes on at 6 PM. Check your local listings to see what’s popping. All right. So, this is your host Deleno on the Fanwire Podcast. Make sure that you subscribe to the channel. Make sure that you like the video. Make sure you let everybody know what we got going on over here. And uh we’ll be right back at you tomorrow. Uh because where we shoot, we score. Y’all take it easy. Enjoy your weekend.

The Washington Mystics put up a strong fight against the Las Vegas Aces but ultimately fell short in the fourth quarter. Despite missing key players, the Mystics showcased promising performances from their rookies, highlighting areas for improvement as they prepare for upcoming games.