D8 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 , 2019
from the return of Kristi To liver,
who played 23 minutes in her
first game since suffering a bone
bruise in her right knee Aug. 8.
Like the rest of her team, the
Maryland graduate took some
time to find her footing, but she
finished with eight points, on
3-for-8 shooting, and four assists.
She went 3 for 4 in the second
half, including two big three-
pointers.
“It wasn’t bad,” Toliver said of
the pace she was able to keep
after the long layoff. “Definitely
want to play faster overall....
Twenty-three minutes is pretty
good; didn’t feel too, too fa-
tigued. Now having this baseline
I can kind of challenge myself to
get more aggressive on defense
and pick people up, run the floor
differently.”
Wilson led Las Vegas with 23
points. Cambage had 19 but criti-
cally scored only four points after
halftime, and Kayla McBride
added 19. Plum had 16.
Thibault forecast this series as
a matchup in which the nuts and
bolts would matter most, with
rebounds and free throw at-
tempts taking a starring role.
He was right: The Aces beat
Washington on the boards 22-15
and held an 11-3 edge from the
free throw line at the end of a
first half in which they looked
plenty comfortable on the court
where the Mystics had won their
previous 10 games. It was only
once the Mystics finally started
getting to the line — and string-
ing together stops — in the
second half that they regained
composure.
“Sometimes,” Thibault said,
“it’s best to survive.”
[email protected]Donne said. “But [there were] a
little bit of jitters where we were
not getting into our plays, or
messing some things up, driving
Coach nuts.”
Washington was able to re-
group on defense at halftime,
which helped create the o ffensive
flow that was absent in the first
half. Emma Meesseman led the
way in the third quarter, ending
the night with a game-high 27
points — three shy of her career
high — and 10 rebounds. Delle
Donne had 24 points after a slow
start, and point guard Natasha
Cloud added 12. LaTo ya Sanders
had nine points and stood out on
defense with five rebounds, five
steals and three blocks.
The Mystics also got a boosthadn’t played in more than a
week, and Las Vegas took advan-
tage early.
The top seed struggled on
defense, allowing the Aces to
shoot 61.8 percent in the first half
as Washington struggled to get
into an offensive rhythm and
faltered from deep. The Mystics
ceded ground b oth in the paint —
bigs A’Ja Wilson and Liz Cam-
bage combined for 25 points
before halftime — and around
the perimeter, where Plum made
both of her attempts from the
three-point line and was 4 for 4
from the field.
“I think we had some jitters.
You could feel that it had been
nine days since a game — every-
body was super excited,” Dellefourth-seeded Las Vegas at the
end of the game to beat the Aces,
97-95, and take a 1-0 series lead
into Thursday’s matchup here.
The game was so tight at the
end that it looked for one breath-
less moment as if fans might
witness a repeat of Las Vegas’s
dramatic, last-second win
against Chicago on Sunday:
Washington’s Elena Delle Donne
missed a jumper w ith 4.5 seconds
to play, and Vegas got the re-
bound and moved the ball to
guard Kelsey Plum. Aces Coach
Bill Laimbeer said he was shout-
ing for a timeout and Plum
looked as though she w as l ooking
for a foul call on her desperation
jumper, but no whistle came and
time ran out.
“I was standing right next to
the referee by design; as soon as
they missed the shot, I would be
yelling, ‘Timeout, timeout, time-
out!’ ” Laimbeer said. “They
missed the shot, we got the
rebound, and I yelled i t five times
— [a referee] even looked at me
when I was yelling and made a
conscious decision not to call a
timeout. I do not understand
why. I think the league should
make a little bit of an investiga-
tion to understand why that
timeout was not called....
“I don’t know if [Delle Donne]
was fouling when I called it or
not. I just know in the last couple
seconds of the game, weird stuff
happened.”
For Washington, the entire
game was a little off-kilter. Com-
ing off an eight-day layoff by
virtue of the double bye they
earned heading into the playoffs,
the Mystics looked as if they
MYSTICS FROM D1
3,968, so e nthusiastic for so m uch
of the n ight, fell quiet.
Wait, about that crowd. This i s
the Mystics’ crowd, because this is
the Mystics’ arena, a brand new
one t o boot. That m attered
throughout the s eason, w hen
Washington d ominated a t home,
and it mattered Tuesday night.
Yes, a ridiculous 8:30 p.m. t ip-
off time o n a school night — h ello,
ESPN! — m eant t he game wasn’t a
sellout. But considering where t he
Mystics were l ast fall, literally
meandering to the Finals, this
was a comforting feeling. The
team’s old home c ourt was
cavernous Capital One Arena —
too b ig, too impersonal, too
(shhhhhhh) quiet. Kicked out o f
that building as it u nderwent
renovations, the Mystics played at
George Washington University’s
Smith Center, t hen finished out
the f inals a gainst Seattle a t
George Mason’s E agleBank Arena,
out i n the Virginia ’ burbs.
There w as, all a long the w ay, a
following. B ut t he Mystics believe
having a true home i nfluenced
their season.
“Being [ 14-3] in this building
says a lot about what it’s g iven us,”
Thibault s aid. “A t the s tart, it ’s s till
our s kill level that h as to be good
to do that. But the fans h ave had a
direct influence on the g ame. It
energizes the team f rom t he time
you w alk into the b uilding.”
It e nergized t he Mystics at
halftime Tuesday. T hey opened
the t hird q uarter by s coring the
first seven points, e rasing the L as
Vegas lead. When guard Natasha
Cloud celebrated a bucket b y
flexing and yelling, i t wasn’t i nto
the a byss. It w as t o the t hrongs
along the b aseline — i ncluding
Wizards guard John Wall — w ho
screamed along with her.
From there, the Mystics pushed
the l ead to 13 i n the fourth
quarter. When Las Vegas cut it to
two, t hey found a way. Not o ne of
them. All of them.
“I just f eel like they have a
confidence a bout t hemselves
because they trust e ach other t o
do their jobs,” T hibault said.
“They trust e ach other to make
shots. I don’t t hink any one player
on this team f eels the pressure t o
win i t all by themselves.”
They d idn’t Tuesday.
Meesseman w as c entral, and
everything f or Washington runs
through Delle Donne, t he MVP
candidate, w ho added 24 p oints,
six r ebounds and s ix a ssists. But
watch what LaTo ya S anders did
against a hulking Las Vegas
lineup, scrapping for nine points,
five boards a nd five steals.
Veteran guard Kristi Toliver eased
herself back into the rotation
from injury and looked u neasy —
but b uried a massive three-
pointer late in the third.
But i t took D elle Donne’s
bucket with 3 2.9 seconds left t o
provide t he Mystics’ last p oints.
And t hen it took watching P lum’s
final shot.
“Wow” w as T hibault’s f rom-
the-gut reaction. “Sometimes i t’s
better just to survive.”
The regular season is o ver, and
the s tring o f blowouts might b e,
too. That’s o kay. T he Mystics —
and t heir very own h ome crowd —
are r eady for w hatever’s next.
[email protected]For more by Barry Svrluga, visit
washingtonpost.com/svrluga.Donne, who m issed what could
have been a clinching s hot and
then guarded P lum o n the
running heave that d idn’t fall. A ll
of that opened t he best-of-five
semifinal series against t he Las
Vegas Aces with a harrowing 97-
95 victory f or Washington that
had j ust about everything,
including the i ngredient the
Mystics’ r egular season romp
didn’t: drama.
As i mportant, though, as the
result of that shot was the
building i n which Plum t ook it —
Entertainment and Sports Arena
in Southeast Washington. I t is a
stage and an advantage the
Mystics had no idea was possible
a year a go.
So, c onsider the ingredients.
These Mystics have swagger. They
have skill. They h ave the s earing
experience of reaching the F inals
and not w inning the title. A nd
they have a home.
That’s q uite a combination. Yet
the w ay i n which the Mystics
began their run t o what they hope
will be the franchise’s f irst trophy
wasn’t how they have become
accustomed t o playing. This was
difficult, i n all the right w ays. The
favorites were pressed, and hard.
They r esponded, buoyed n ot only
by Emma Meesseman’s 27 points
and 10 rebounds and Delle
Donne’s a ll-around e xcellence —
including a key bucket with a bout
half a minute left — b ut by a crowd
that recognizes what could be
coming over t he next few weeks.
“We’ve gotten to a position
where w e’re No. 1 and everyone’s
looking to come at u s,” D elle
Donne s aid. “But that’s where w e
want to be.”
They a re there, with reason.
Put aside the a nxiety of the final
moments Tuesday a nd think
about how t he Mystics entered
these playoffs, not j ust as the top
seed, not j ust as winners of 17 o f
their past 19 games, not j ust on a
10-game home winning streak.
No, they w ere t hrottling teams
and stepping on necks.
Since mid-July, when t hat 19-
game finishing k ick started, t hey
had w on 1 3 times b y double digits.
Their 2 6 victories over the c ourse
of the s eason came by a n average
of — g et t his — 19.5 points. They
took the mantle of favorites — a
status gained i n part because of
their run to the Finals l ast season,
where t hey lost t o Seattle — a nd
gave it a big ol’ hug.
“They had a target o n their
backs since t he first game of the
season,” C oach Mike T hibault
said. “We’ve been a favorite o r one
of the c o-favorites for a long t ime.
And y et w e’ve kept winning.”
That’s a dmirable. It a lso means
nothing right about now. Go u p 13
in the fourth quarter, as
Washington d id Tuesday, and a
playoff opponent is l ikely to have
a shot t o tie o r win it at t he buzzer,
as Las Vegas did.
“It’s playoff t ime now,” D elle
Donne s aid, “so there p robably
won’t b e blowouts.”
The first game wasn’t, and
Plum’s l eaner a t the buzzer not
only made t hat point obvious but
was t he exclamation p oint o n so
many harrowing moments that
led t o it. Start w ith Plum’s b uzzer-
beating jumper at t he end o f the
second quarter, the s hot that put
Las Vegas up seven. The crowd o fSVRLUGA FROM D1BY GENE WANG
The Las Vegas Aces had come
storming back from a double-dig-
it deficit in the fourth quarter
Tuesday night when, with 4.5 sec-
onds left in Game 1 of the WNBA
semifinals, Kelsey Plum had the
ball in her hands and an opportu-
nity to at least force overtime
against the Washington Mystics.
The point guard, falling for-
ward, released a shot as the buzz-
er sounded, appearing to draw
contact from the Mystics’ Elena
Delle Donne. Another layer to the
sequence, according to Aces
Coach Bill Laimbeer, was that he
was attempting to call a timeout
to set up a final play.
The officials didn’t blow the
whistle, Plum’s shot was off the
mark, and the Mystics escaped,
97-95, at Entertainment and
Sports Arena. Plum blamed her-
self for failing to manage the final
seconds properly.
“We ended up losing, but I
think the fight toward the end is
something we have to start the
next game like that,” said guard
Sydney Colson, biting her tongue
when asked whether Plum was
fouled. “Do it consistently with-
out making unforced mistakes
the next game, and the game pos-
sibly will be a double-digit win.”
Colson is responsible for much
of the Aces’ fight. Shortly before
tip-off Tuesday, she had gathered
her teammates outside the locker
room for a ritual that has become
as much a part of the franchise’s
identity this season as Laimbeer
stalking the sideline or Liz Cam-
bage imposing her will in the
paint.
A little dancing and clapping in
unison preceded a version of a
chant that has become a rallying
cry for the Aces during their run
to semifinals.
“We are!” center A’ ja Wilson
shouted.
“A ces!” the rest of the players
screamed.
They will surely be repeating
the cathartic process before
Game 2 on Thursday night, keep-
ing the mood light but staying
focused after Tuesday’s disheart-
ening outcome.
Colson, a reserve point guard,
usually leads the cheers, but re-
gardless of which player does the
honors, the festivities have served
Las Vegas well on multiple fronts.
Most notably, it’s anotherround of team building for a
group already among the closest
in the league. The laughter re-
minds players to have fun and
play loose, a message Laimbeer
imparts as well.
“If you don’t have fun, then
what are you here for?” reserve
guard Sugar Rodgers, who played
at Georgetown, said of the pre-
game antics. “It’s fun. It’s some-
thing Syd came up with, and weenjoy doing it, and we get a lot of
laughs and shake a lot of nerves
out.”
Despite the Aces having just
one day off before Game 1, there
was no indication of much anxi-
ety or fatigue. Cambage did some
of her best work early, and she
finished with 19 points and 12
rebounds. The first-year member
of the Aces holds the WNBA rec-
ord for points in a game, 53, setlast season when the 6-foot-8 Aus-
tralian played for the Dallas
Wings.
Laimbeer, also the Aces’ presi-
dent of basketball operations, en-
gineered the trade that brought
Cambage to Las Vegas after the
No. 2 pick in 2011 requested a
trade in the offseason. In ex-
change for Cambage, the Aces
gave up Moriah Jefferson, Isabelle
Harrison and first- and second-
round draft picks in 2020.
Other foundational players in-
clude Wilson, the No. 1 selection
of the 2018 draft who went on to
win rookie of the year.
“I think we do a really good job
of making sure when we’re out
there, we’re playing together,
we’re playing for one another,”
Colson said. “If somebody’s s trug-
gling, we’re trying to make sure
we’re keeping them involved in
the game. We do a really good job
of rallying around one another
and picking people up when
they’re down.”
Even when Wilson missed
eight games from late July
through early August with an an-
kle injury, Las Vegas remained
within striking distance of the top
seed in the playoffs thanks in partto Dearica Hamby starting in her
place at p ower forward. Hamby is
responsible for one of the most
memorable baskets in league his-
tory — a half-court heave that sent
Las Vegas to the semifinals with a
win against the Chicago Sky in the
single-elimination second round
Sunday.
With the Sky leading 92-90 in
the closing seconds and inbound-
ing, Hamby gained possession on
a turnover. Colson was wide open
running toward the basket, wav-
ing her arms for the ball. She
launched a 38-footer that swished
through with 4.8 seconds to play.
That brought the Aces to
Southeast Washington on Tues-
day night, and they got within
inches of forcing overtime against
the league’s top team in the regu-
lar season.
“I’m proud of everyone,” Plum
said of the Game 1 result. “I
thought we kept fighting. We
didn’t drop our heads. They’re a
really good team, and they go on
runs, but we also go o n runs, and I
thought everyone stayed in it, got
some stops. Hopefully this will
take some momentum to the next
game.”
[email protected]Pregame antics and postgame frustration give Aces something to build on
TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POST
Las Vegas Coach Bill Laimbeer was not happy after officials didn’t
blow the whistle when he tried to call time out in the final seconds.BARRY SVRLUGAA home to call their own
provides a winning edge
Mystics defeat Aces to open semifinals
PHOTOS BY TONI L. SANDYS/THE WASHINGTON POSTElena Delle Donne splits two Las Vegas defenders to score two of her 2 4 points in Washington’s win. Game 2 of the series is Thursday.
WNBA Playoffs
Aces guard Kelsey Plum, left, who later nearly sent the game into
overtime, is defended by center LaToya Sanders of the Mystics.