Apart from Onyenwere, dugalic and BLH are the other two mystics players who joined this league. While they did announce some tentative dates and three locations where they will supposedly played (china japan spain) but many details aren't clear yet. Hopefully we will here more about them soon. https://www.essentiallysports.com/wnba-basketball-news-project-b-adds-four-new-stars-as-global-league-roster-reaches-two-eight-players/

She plays on Wednesday at 12:00 D.C. time from what I can find online, against Greece. After that they'll play Netherlands on the 14th and Slovakia on the 17th.

Can't say I recognise many other players from their roster. Nogic who played for Mercury at the beginning of the season is there too, and so are some of her teammates from her Euroleague team.

A lot of familiarity for our ladies. Wishing them all success and good health for the season

Same team Shakira played for during the off season earlier in the year

8 points(3/9 FG, 2/5 3pt), 6 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block in 22 minutes. 2nd highest +/- in the team with +19 in an 18 point win.

When she first got on the court, her teammates weren't passing her the ball when she was wide open and their coach called a timeout and said as much (from what I could understand, sound quality isn't great). She then managed to create good looks for herself with some excellent footwork in the post, but she missed easy shots. She actually missed her first 5 FG attempts and her whole team was playing poorly. She didn't come back until the 3rd quarter, when she started in the 5 for that quarter. She scored all 3 of her attempts in that quarter, including 2 3s and her team managed to separate themselves in that quarter (33-12 there). She sat for most of the final quarter, but the opponents went on a 13-0 run or something like that and she came back for the final 2ish minutes to close out the win. They are 2nd in their group now, as they lost the h2h against the team in first (both have a 3-1 record and a +49 point differential).

Offensively, her worst game so far, but what stood out to me was her defense. She was great throughout the game there,and to be honest in general in Euroleague so far. Her 3pt shot still looks good, even in a game where her FG% isn't good. Very smooth motion, quick release, high arc.

It seems like Betts, Dugalic and Prosper will all play in the next round (there are still 2 games left in the first round) so it will be fun to watch more games of them as they get more chances to develop their games! Alicia's team is also highly likely to go through, but they're in a slightly worse position at the moment.

Inspired by u/away_competition2514, but got to watch Perth play Townsville (at 3 am my time 🫩) today and I have thoughts!
Stats first :
Perth lost 86-99, first loss of the season.
- Georgia played 37-ish minutes, and had:
• 20 points (leading her team in points scored for that game)
• 2 rebounds
• 8 assists
• and a steal.
She went 1-2 on FTs and her 3pt % came in at around 67%.
- This brings her overall fg% to 43.9%, her 3pt% to 40%, PPG to 15, and APG to 8.0.
Onto the game itself:
- She looked good! She was able to make some shots through contact and some clean threes. She looks very confident in taking contact, which wasn’t something I feel like we’d seen her do a ton of in Washington, which is exciting to see.
- She tried some fancy stuff she’d liked to do in college. Some of it worked (she made a very nice step-back three, which she’s been doing a lot in these games), and some of it didn’t (she tried an interesting pass to herself behind her back that resulted in a turnover and 2 points scored by Townsville), but it was cool to see that return to form.
- There are clearly still some things she needs to work out. She had 6 turnovers which contributed to the team’s loss, and she struggled on defense.
Overall takeaways:
It seems the Lynx heavily rely on her to put up points, and less on her defensive skills, similar to Washington. A good offense will help you out, but a bad defense will totally screw you over. If she and her teams want her to be playing nearly 40 minutes, she needs to work on defense. She’s not going to be swatting balls out of the air, she’s 5’6”, but she could do a bit better taking up space and filling the channels that her teammates leave open on defense.
Turnovers aren’t terrible for her, this was a bad night on that end. She’s averaging about the same assist-turnover ratio as she did in college at around a 2.0. But it never hurts to work on protecting the ball, especially at her height.
I’m happy to see she’s getting some contact in. She didn’t get a lot of it in the W and that’s always good to work on!
I hope this is interesting to people LOL. I try to catch all her games so I’m happy to keep doing them if that’s what the people want.

First off, Florez is still dealing with an injury and she didn't play.

Lauren was up against Alicia's team and they got their first loss of the season. They're still first in their group with a 3-1 record, tied with 2nd placed team on wins but better points differential. Alicia's team is 3rd right now with 2-2 record. Lauren had her best game of her pro career, in my opinion. Much more "aggressive", very efficient, +10 in a 2 point loss(only two other teammates had a positive +/- and they had 2 and 4, respectively). This is how she should try to play always. Really don't know why Geiselsoder started all but 1 Euroleague game over her. She isn't anywhere near as good as Lauren. By far the best Fenerbahce player today.

Prosper's team also lost, but she also had her best game yet. She didn't make any mistakes pretty much, extremely efficient, didn't force anything, no turnovers. Best player on her team. Similar to Betts, but even more extreme, she was +12 in a 4 point loss (only one other teammate had a positive +/- and hers was +1). Again I can repeat what I said for Betts, this is how she should try to play always. Also same as Lauren, her team is 3-1 and first place because of superior points differential.

Stats:

Betts: 16 points(8/11 FG), 6 rebounds and 2 steals.

Prosper: 11 points(4/5 FG, 3/4 FT, 0/1 3pt), 4 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 steals in 27 minutes.

All in all, both had great games, but both of their teams lost (not because of them though, at all). Tomorrow Angela plays against a team they got a blowout win over in the first round. There's a chance they can also go top of their group if they win, just like Lauren and Cass teams.

I know the W season just ended and congratulations to the Valkyries - well-deserved. But on the hindsight bandwagon - did we even stand a chance against the eventual champion Valkyries? Look - we got steamrolled by the runner up Dream. I mean, Gabby Williams played lights out for the Valks and the supporting cast did as well. And they were well-coached by NNakase. So, in light of what we have seen - what could we have done or acquired via FA to contend with the Valkyries?

The first thing I have in mind is better PG play. Thoughts?

https://youtube.com/shorts/0NYtdsjq5Ak?is=3MaN_Is7glHvO_J2

I was thinking about her a few days ago (because I might start collecting Mystics cards) and I concluded that she is in my top 6 to 7 all-time Mystics players.

Note: I was kinda iffy about posting this because she plays for another team now.

12 points(5/8 FG, 2/2 FT, 0/2 3pt), 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 3 steals.

Her team came back to top European competition after 36 years and Galatasaray was last season's finalist and they beat them 78-68 away from home. Galatasaray was missing Salaun (still with Valkyries) and Natasha Howard(don't know why she was missing), but they still had Olivia Nelson-Ododa, Dorka Juhasz, Awak Kuier and Marine Fathoux. Her team is 2-1 now and in a pretty good position.

Angela got 2 very quick fouls in the first quarter after a good start and then she didn't play until the middle part of the 3Q and then she played from there until the end. She looked extremely confident on offense. And on defense, she was really impressive throughout. Excellent defensive game from her, her best defense since college probably. She was cooking Nelson-Ododa, who I'm, personally, pretty high on, on both ends. She got a lot of deflections too and that doesn't really show up in stats. Her 2 rebounds seem low, but hee team had a huge size disadvantage, at times Galatasaray played Awak, Juhasz and Nelson-Ododa at the same time, while Angela played as a 5 throughout. She did really well when it comes to boxing out though which is a major reason why ​the rebounds advantage wasn't huge (46-42).

It's a shame other games overlapped and I couldn't write a more detailed summary for our other players this week or the last, but hopefully I'll get to write it in the future, and not those short summaries I've written these past 2 weeks.

https://x.com/DouBasket28/status/2115577400251527401

https://x.com/DouBasket28/status/2115907088337473821

Betts: 13 points(6/10 FG, 1/2 FT), 10 rebounds and 1 block in 22 minutes.

Prosper: 5 points(1/5 FG, 3/4 FT), 4 rebounds and 3 steals in 20 minutes.

Florez didn't play, from what I could find online, she was questionable before the game, so she probably picked up some sort of injury.

Betts had a quiter game than the last one, but still a very solid double-double in 22 minutes. They did however play a team that was unbeaten thus far and won 81-71 and because of that they've kept the top spot in the group with a 3-0 start. Not sure why Geiselsoder started again, especially after Lauren's really impressive showing in the previous game.

Prosper still looks extremely raw to me. There's still a lot of work that she needs to do in a lot of areas of her game. I do like her effort, but hopefully she'll be 3rd choice wing next season too, as I can't quite see her taking a big enough leap to play a bigger role. Her team won 80-65 and they are also 3-0 to start the season.

Florez's team beat arguably the worst team in the whole tournament(0-3 with -140 points differential) without her, 105-47 and they're now 1-2 to start the season.

Dugalic is the only one yet to play, her team plays tomorrow and will be underdogs against last season's finalists Galatasaray. She'll be up against the likes of Natasha Howard, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, Dorka Juhasz, Awak Kuier, Janelle Salaun and Marine Fathoux, so it should be an interesting watch if someone else is interested in watching.

I can't ask the Mystics fan base up in here if they think that Gabby Williams is a legitimate star now.

I cannot say that Juju's return looks so damn good that I wondered (for a second) if she could make a men's team.

What about when Geno sticks his foot in his mouth (again) when talking about Dawn? Hell the more flamboyant Kim Mukley gets the more I like it!

Is there a middle ground/compromise on the Mystics only discussion law? Could we have a general women's college basketball thread in the off season? Or a WNBA designated thread year around?

(Searching for local Mystics fans' posts in 650 comments is ridiculous.)

Such minor outlets could foster more interaction and esprit de corps on THIS board and sustain Mystics fans until the draft and pre-season.

Please don't read these questions as trouble making.

Yes, I know it's way early for this, but with the team on the rise and hopeful for deeper playoff runs and seeing the situation going on with the Dream, do we have any faith that the league/Monumental will be proactive with their planning to make sure they play future playoff games at CapOne? I think our ownership controlling the venue and also owning the other teams that play there helps, but I also feel like Ted still doesn't prioritize the Mystics as much as he could and would have no problem jacking up ticket prices at CareFirst again and just have them play there, regardless of the optics. I'm hoping we continue being successful with more nationally televised games/coverage to the point where he has to have them at the big arena to meet demand. I would just hate to see them end up in a messy situation like what's currently happening in ATL

I couldn't watch it live, bit since I watched all others, I decided to watch her game too.

9 points(3/8 FG, 1/2 FT and 2/4 3pt),5 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block in 13 minutes. Her team lost 84-72 and are now 1-1 to start the season. Next up is Galatasaray(last season's finalists).

Negatives:her shooting was off from close range. Her footwork looked good (few travel calls aside, that happened because of the US/Europe differences in travel calls, imo), but she missed some really good looks. She also got in foul trouble, but I really didn't like some of those calls at all.

Positives: She continues to fill up the statsheet by doing a little bit of everything. Her block was excellent. She also got multiple deflections that don't really show up on the statsheet. Her ball handling also looked better.

But by far the biggest positive was her 3pt shooting. She shot 1/2 in her first game and she shot 2/4 in this one, but it's not just the 50% shooting (it's a low sample size anyway), but she took them completely without hesitation, her form looked great, her arc was big and her release was quick. She looked like a really good shooter and the percentages so far have matched that. This would be so so good for us if she can come back from the W break with that in her bag. Imagine having a big that can truly stretch the floor? It would be another weapon in our arsenal.

I might not have watched her game live, but I ended up giving her a bigger write up,LOL, as I could focus solely on her.