Pace and Patience: What We Learned from Mystics Preseason
Over the last two weeks, the Mystics took on the Minnesota Lynx and Atlanta Dream in preseason action as they prep for the WNBA season start on May 8th.
In what was the first bit of WNBA action for much of the Mystics' youthful roster, flashes of how the many different pieces would fit together were on full display.
We’re going to take a look at the aftermath of the first game against Minnesota, along with some nuggets from the Mystics practice I attended last week, and some observations of their road match in Atlanta.
What We Learned Against the Lynx
Pace will be what defines the Mystics’ offense this season.
The offense's speed was evident in the first quarter, as the team capitalized on Lynx turnovers and made a concerted effort to get the ball down the floor at warp speed.
The Mystics definitely have the point guards on the roster in Georgia Amoore and Rori Harmon to push the ball up as quickly as possible on every possession.
However, a high pace can also highlight this young group's inexperience, as the offense, albeit without Kiki Iriafen, Shakira Austin, and Michaela Onyenwere, in game one struggled and fell to the Lynx, 77-66.
The pace of this offense relies on quick passing and decision-making from post players as much as on guards getting out, running, and winning 1-on-1 matchups off the dribble.
The passing importance allowed us to see Lauren Betts's passing on full display, highlighted by a nice feed to Sonia Citron for two of Sonia’s 12 points on the day.
Betts also led the game in scoring with 13 points, 9 of which came from the free-throw line, indicating she can force teams to collapse and foul her in the paint. If she utilizes a consistent 15-foot shot to her offensive arsenal, the sky is truly the limit.
Those who were tuned into UCLA throughout her career know. Still, her passing, especially from the high post, creates tons of opportunities for shooters and cutters, as teams also have to respect her ability to get to and finish at the bucket.
We also saw Cotie McMahon relentlessly attack downhill, as she was known for in college. One thing to watch for McMahon will be how efficiently she can score moving forward. Against the Lynx, she scored 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting, so you can already see that if there are nights where she’s knocking down outside shots, she will be able to pile on points as a player who is effective at getting to her spots.
Lastly, on offense, we saw exactly what the team needs from Angela Dugalic.
Despite having a rough game, you can see that whenever she is on the floor, she’ll have opportunities to score inside and out, along with secondary playmaking opportunities and a presence to fight for rebounds on both ends of the floor.
In this game, you could see she was bumped off her spot a few times while trying to finish at the bucket, and she generally struggled to find a rhythm. Fans should be super patient, as they should be with the rest of this young team.
Tuesday Practice Notes
On the Tuesday following the Lynx game, I caught up with coach Sydney Johnson, Lauren Betts, and Lucy Olsen during media availability after Mystics practice.
First, with coach Johnson, I asked about the difficulty of bringing a team together on a short runway, given that many players had just finished a collegiate season and others had played overseas.
Coach Johnson mentioned “pattern recognition” as a component that is tougher to put together in a short runway, as Basketball, like most sports, is a game of reads, and the short runway into the WNBA season can limit the opportunities you have in live game action to prepare a unit to make the reads that fit your principles against the myriad of options an opponent can present.
“We don’t have a lot of time, we’re going to need games for that, that’s a big difference between us and some of the more experienced teams,” Said coach Johnson, who also added that his team is ready to face that difficulty “head on”.
Seguing and staying on the theme of the Mystics' experience, I was able to catch up with Lucy Olsen, a sparkplug off the bench last season, who recently won the 2026 WNBL championship in Australia with Townsville Fire.
Moving directly from her championship season in Australia back to the WNBA preseason, Lucy’s energy was evident. She noted that the overseas experience helped her stay in shape and further develop her game since the last WNBA season.
Lastly, I heard from Lauren Betts, who discussed the growth process and said, “We’re going to be really good as long as we just continue to get our head down and get better every single day.”
What we learned from Game 2
Against the Atlanta Dream, we got to see a look at the Mystics closer to full strength as Kiki Iriafen made her return.
Despite still missing Shakira Austin from the main starting lineup, Washington clicked in this game as they triumphed over Atlanta 83-72.
Lauren Betts led the scoring in this game with 17 points and also added 4 rebounds and 3 assists, highlighting her passing for the second straight game.
Betts not only has the talent to be one of the best players on this team in the future, but also to develop into one of the best players in the league.
Along with Betts, Kiki Iriafen also looked comfortable in her first action of the year, scoring 11 points and knocking down an early corner 3, despite falling into foul trouble guarding Angel Reese during the contest in just over 16 minutes of game time.
Lucy Olsen added 9 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists on 3-of-4 shooting from the field, highlighting her ability to impact in limited minutes, and Angela Dugalic had a much-improved game as she finished with seven points, six rebounds, two assists, three steals, and a block on the night. A true do-it-all forward that provides value in many different lineups.
With plenty of positives in this contest, it is interesting to note that only one player in each game hit multiple three-point shots (Citron vs Lynx, Amoore vs Dream).
Going into the year, outside shooting could be a struggle for the team, and the bulk of outside shooting volume over the course of the year will rely on Sonia and Georgia, who are more than capable outside shooters.
Overall, Mystics fans should be encouraged by their team’s play this preseason, as they can expect an exciting, fun team.
Some potential pain points are also what make them so exciting. Youth and inexperience can be a downfall at times, especially against veteran-built teams with talent that matches and exceeds their own.
We also haven't yet seen the true makeup of this team without Shakira Austin starting, but after Lauren Betts' solid preseason, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to potentially see some bigger lineups that include putting Kiki at the 3-spot to utilize the talent in this frontcourt.
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