D6 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, AUGUST 2 , 2020
point halftime advantage.
Meesseman continued to strug-
gle offensively after recently ac-
knowledging that her shot hasn’t
been falling this s eason.
The Mystics expected the 2019
WNBA Finals MVP to be their
No. 1 offensive option in 2020 with
four projected starters unavail-
able, but she has been anything
but. Her all-around game has
been s harp — Meesseman e ntered
Saturday averaging a career-high
5.0 assists — but her 12.0 points
per game entering Saturday
would be her lowest average over
a full season since 20 15.
She finished 4 for 10 from the
field in a game in which the Mys-
tics could have used more from
their most accomplished player.
She finally got going late in the
fourth quarter and finished with
nine points, nine rebounds and six
assists, but it wasn’t enough. Her
turnover on the final play sealed
the outcome.
“Basketball is 40 minutes,” At-
kins said plainly. “ I don’t t hink we
locked in for 40 minutes.”
Note: Mystics forward Tianna
Hawkins missed her third consec-
utive game with a lumbar sprain
in her back.
[email protected]Quigley chipped in 15 points, and
Kahleah Copper added 14.
The Sky scored 20 points off
14 Washington turnovers.
“You saw the good and the bad
of our team tonight,” Mystics
Coach/General Manager Mike
Thibault said. “Saw us make some
great plays. Saw us make some
awful plays, awful decisions. Our
turnovers were unbelievably cost-
ly.... I think w e’re tired.”
The Mystics rallied from an
ugly first quarter to take a 37-35
lead into halftime. Washington,
which largely scored at will in its
first three games, shot just- 3 percent from the field in
those opening 10 minutes, and a
pair of layups by Parker closed an
8-0 run that put Chicago up 20 -15
at t he end of the quarter.
The Mystics awakened in the
second quarter, when the trio of
Hines-Allen, Atkins and Powers
did the heavy lifting. Washington
shot 2 for 9 from three-point range
in the first half en route to shoot-
ing 8 for 22 (36.4 percent) on the
night, but the interior began to
open up after a pair of midrange
jumpers from Essence Carson. A
7-2 run capped by a three-point
play by Meesseman gave the de-
fending champions their two-
next game. I’m not sure why. I’m
not going to sit here and say we’re
tired. Everybody’s tired. We’re all
in the same predicament.... We
heard Chicago celebrating. I think
that’s kind of what we needed,
kind of a slap in the face.”
The teams went back and forth
from the opening tip. With just
nine available players, Washing-
ton (3-1) exerted a t on of energy to
push its lead to 60 -52 off a Leilani
Mitchell layup with 3:35 l eft in the
third quarter. But the Mystics
sagged from there, and the score
was tied at 6 2 entering t he fourth.
The Mystics shot just 41.9 per-
cent from the field and simply
didn’t have the same tempo they
displayed in their previous three
games.
The defense also seemed to
move at three-quarters speed as
Chicago (3-1) shot 51. 4 percent
from the field and 48 percent from
behind the t hree-point arc.
Ariel Atkins scored a game-
high 24 points for the Mystics,
Powers added 20 points, and My-
isha Hines-Allen finished with
13 p oints a nd 12 rebounds.
Parker and Gabby Williams led
the Sky with 16 points a piece. Allie
MYSTICS FROM D1
Mystics fall one play short in their first defeat
NED DISHMAN/NBA ENTERTAINMENT/GETTY IMAGES
The Mystics’ Myisha Hines-Allen, reaching for the ball, had 13 points and 12 rebounds against the Sky.asterisks be d amned. That’s w hy
MLB, the NFL and o ther l eagues
are adamant about a t least
getting something out of t his
season, e ven if they are forced t o
stop. That’s w hy c ollege football,
the g reat revenue generator for
athletics of major universities,
won’t g ive up t he dream. They’re
all bracing for a multiyear
struggle and employing the o nly
thing they k now t o use in this
situation: the ability t o persevere.
Sports don’t k now how to quit.
They a re s eldom put in p osition t o
have to consider the possibility.
When in doubt, they grind. And
that’s fine if, on a c ompetency
scale from R ob Manfred to Adam
Silver, they a re c loser to the S ilver
end o f the spectrum.
Manfred, the MLB
commissioner, implemented an
ill-thought rough draft and prayed
it would hold up for a truncated
60 -game season. Oops. Baseball,
continuing to have its teams travel
throughout a country full of
mercurial pandemic responses, is
struggling to contain the virus.
And while outbreaks and
complications were easy to
predict, the MLB “plan” is so thin
that Manfred is forced to make
radical amendments on the fly,
which only makes the thought of
getting through the season seem
more dire.
Silver, the NBA commissioner,
has a more forward-thinkingplan. For now, Florida bubbles in
the N BA, the WNBA and soccer
associations are w orking. The
NBA’s daily testing procedures
seem ideal, and i ts safety
protocols are thorough and s trict
enough t o inspire trust. Other
leagues had t he benefit of time
and w asted it. S ilver had to shut
down the N BA i n March after
Rudy Gobert became the f irst
player i n a U. S.-based sports
league to test p ositive f or the
coronavirus.
To p ause the l eague so quickly,
he had to have thought about the
bubbling i ssue b efore that night.
And then the NBA made g ood use
of its 41 / 2 -month s uspension,
determining a logical w ay t o
attempt t he impossible. It’s more
reasonable than t he g ame plans
of some o f its p eers, including the
NFL, which a ppear to be: w ait,
hope and just try to g et b y on
willpower.
In May, during a c onference
call with players, Silver w as frank
about the challenges facing the
NBA, r eportedly telling them the
league’s c ollective bargaining
agreement “was not b uilt f or an
extended pandemic.”
“This could turn out to be the
single g reatest c hallenge of all our
lives,” he a lso said, according to
ESPN.com.
Then Silver reacted with
appropriate diligence to those
sobering truths. Consider i t amodel for h ow thoughtful sports
leaders must be to manage this
crisis. There is no guarantee t hat
the N BA p lan or any other sports
bubble i s sustainable, but
currently it is functional. B aseball
is not even there yet, a nd if
football doesn’t l earn f rom those
mistakes, i t might have greater
issues.
The only reasonable play here
is a long-term one, and sports
leagues aren’t g ood at t hat. A sk
just about a ny l eague to look i nto
the f uture, a nd y ou will receive
some convoluted answer that
reveals no one really has thought
beyond short-term s urvival. It
seemed like g igantic news last
week when Michele Roberts, t he
National Basketball Players
Association executive director,
told ESPN.com that the N BA
might n eed a b ubble n ext season
because so many people are
refusing to entertain t he
possibility that American sports
could need the rest of this decade
to remake itself post-covid 19.
What’s next? What h appens
after t his difficult t ime? What’s
the e ncore to the s trangest year in
modern-day s ports? No o ne was
prepared for a pandemic, a nd
sadly n o one s eems to be
preparing for the n ext one.
Perhaps it would b e okay to
take a chance and consider this
another once-a-century d isaster.
But t hat could b e a huge mistake.This pandemic has magnified our
vulnerabilities as a n ation. They
apply to much more t han a
widespread d isease. A different
kind of c risis could p ut us back i n
this same place, divided a nd
unwilling to sacrifice.
As b est they can, sports should
prepare for the n ext disruption.
And preparation requires
revisiting financial models
(especially in college), cutting
back on the a rms race w ith
facilities and amenities, planning
better for rainy days a nd
operating like t rue businesses
instead o f playthings for the
wealthy.
Nike has debuted a nother
wonderful a d for the s ports
restart. T he “ You Can’t S top Us”
commercial, voiced by soccer icon
Megan Rapinoe, is a w arm and
timely inspirational video. It’s
wonderful i n its o ptimism. But
the r eturn of these games also
should provide some s olemn
thoughts.
There is gloom sloshing
around in this joy. Sports c an be
stopped. Sports have b een
stopped. This comeback i sn’t
merely a t estament to
persistence. It’s a w arning that, to
rebuild, sports will need t o
exhibit unprecedented agility.
[email protected]For more by Jerry Brewer, visit
washingtonpost.com/brewer.It makes the n ovel coronavirus
pandemic the cruelest opponent
possible, and it’s w hy o ur sports
leaders s hould be doing
something t hey’re unaccustomed
to: Plotting the long game more
than just staging t he next one.
As t he American sports
community t ries t o forge ahead
despite a virus that has yet to be
tamed, t he money-driven attempt
exposes how these multibillion
dollar enterprises a re r un from
year to year. For as much a s this
seems to be a gold-plated d ream
world, it operates without much
of a safety net. There i s no g reat
hidden r eserve of cash for
unpredictable, hard times. There
is no a dvanced strategic thinking
because it’s u nnecessary. T he
games go o n, always. Until they
don’t. And then watch the
leadership p anic.
What you’re witnessing now is
the manifestation of a kind of
desperation that e ven the
smartest people in a thletics didn’t
see c oming. A fter a f our-month
BREWER FROM D1 hiatus, the s ports scene i s starting
to feel robust again d espite the
risks. But d iscomfort i s the
dominant feeling. The excitement
of a welcome d iversion c ompetes
with the sense that every athlete,
on every team, i n every sport, is
simply trying t o stop a long losing
streak.
The mission is t o salvage
whatever revenue c an b e
recovered f rom the destruction o f
covid-19, the disease caused by
the c oronavirus. I t’s
understandable. It makes some of
these monstrous leagues
relatable, e ven t hough t hey’re
trying to amass billions rather
than scrape together r ent money.
But i t’s still a desperate and
urgent act. A nd y ou’re left t o
watch and h ope it doesn’t e nd u p
being r eckless.
The importance of maximizing
revenue now i s amplified by the
harsh reality t hat the l osses could
be even more significant n ext
season. T hat’s why the N BA a nd
NHL a re doing everything
possible t o complete their
2 019-20 seasons, bubbles and
JERRY BREWER
Leagues’ focus s hould be
on long game, not next one
BY BEN GOLLIVERkissimmee, fla. — The NBA
took great pains to ease into its
return to play after a months-long
pause amid the novel coronavirus
pandemic, instituting a phased
program that began more than a
month before the regular season
was set to resume July 3 0.
Week by week, players were
cleared to return to practice facili-
ties and go through individual
workouts before they traveled to
Disney World, entered the
league’s bubble, began team work-
outs and finally played dress re-
hearsal scrimmages against op-
posing teams. While those delib-
erate steps were primarily de-
signed to help the NBA establish
its coronavirus protocols, they
also provided an extended ramp-
up for players who had been away
from the court since March.
Once real games began Thurs-
day, the league’s stars hit the
ground running. LeBron James
converted a game-winner to beat
the Los Angeles Clippers o n open-
ing night, and his Los Angeles
Lakers teammate Anthony Davis
scored 34 points to fend off 30
from Paul George and 28 from
Kawhi Leonard.
The next night, Giannis Ante-
tokounmpo posted 36 points,
15 rebounds and seven assists in
just 32 minutes to lead the Mil-
waukee Bucks past the Boston
Celtics in an Eastern Conference
showdown. In a captivating night-
cap, James Harden scored
49 points to lead the Houston
Rockets to an improbable come-
back win in overtime over the
Dallas Mavericks, who got a
2 8-point triple-double from Luka
Doncic. The 153 -149 final score
made it clear that the Texas rivals
need not be overly concerned
about r usty o ffenses.
During the early whirlwind, it
became apparent that the players
missed the game as much as
hoops-deprived fans.
“We’re in the land of the un-
known,” James said. “Things are
happening for the first time. You
just take it for what it is. Don’t t ake
the moment for granted. We’re all
still living and alive and back to
doing w hat we love to do: covering
the game, playing the game,
watching t he game. That’s a b less-
ing because 2020 has been pretty
[crappy]. We’re all blessed.”
There were other d azzling indi-
vidual performances sprinkled in
during the bubble’s first 48 hours.
Rudy Gobert, the patient zero of
American sports, posted a double-
double and sank the game-win-
ning free throws to lead the Utah
Jazz past the New Orleans Peli-
cans in a two-point win. Portland
Tr ail Blazers guards Damian Lil-
lard and CJ McCollum combined
for 62 points in an overtime win
despite 22 points and 11 assists
from Ja Morant, the Memphis
Grizzlies’ rookie sensation.
De’Aaron Fox, a rising star who
has largely flown under the na-
tional radar on the Sacramento
Kings, poured in 39 points against
the San Antonio Spurs in a losing
effort.
For all the justified anxiety
about the living conditions at D is-
ney World, the sport’s biggest
names wasted no time making the
most of their new situation and
brushing off concerns about the
quality of play after the long lay-
off. The lack of fans and quiet
arenas are a dramatic departure
from the NBA’s norm, but the
sport’s emotions and passion
were as visible as ever. Even more
visible, really, because media
members are granted an up-close
and personal view from courtside
seats.
James increased his intensity
and loudly lobbied the officials for
calls in the closing minutes
against the Clippers. Davis
flashed a childlike grin while
basking in the hard-fought victo-
ry. Houston’s b ench could not con-
trol its excitement as Harden took
over down the stretch, and it
erupted when P. J. Tucker took a
key late-game charge. Clippers
Coach Doc R ivers shouted himself
hoarse before halftime, like al-
ways. Antetokounmpo exchangedsome heated words with Marcus
Smart on the court, then saluted
the Celtics pest for his team-first
approach.
“Whenever I come back from
the offseason or a long break, I’m
just excited,” Antetokounmpo
said, lamenting that built-up en-
ergy landed him in foul trouble
and welcoming the tense inter-
play with Smart. “I told him at t he
end of the game that I respect that
you play hard. There’s nothing
more to that. I know he’s going to
talk and talk and try to get me out
of my game. I respect that he’s
doing that.”
The sheer volume of high-level
performances, in a short time and
condensed at t he same locale, was
disorienting even for hungry
viewers who had been anxiously
counting down the days until
games resumed. By the time
Harden addressed reporters well
past midnight on the second night
of the season, only two media
members were left s tanding.
“[The hiatus was lost] time
away from our teammates build-
ing chemistry,” Harden said. “To-
night was a great start. We had a
really good training camp. Guys
were getting after it, building our
conditioning and communica-
tion. We’re just happy to be
around each other.... We’re not
even close to who we want to be,
but we’re building in the right
direction.”
Glancing at the upcoming
schedule is a dizzying proposition.
On Monday, James, Davis, Mo-
rant, Chris Paul, Zion Williamson,
Nikola Jokic, Jimmy Butler, Pascal
Siakam, Joel Embiid and Ben Sim-
mons will all take the court. On
Tuesday, it will be Antetokounm-
po, Leonard, George, Harden,
Russell Westbrook, Doncic, Lil-
lard, Jayson Tatum and others. On
Wednesday and beyond, the cycle
continues, as long as the bubble
holds up against the coronavirus.
After a four-month drought,
there will be a torrential down-
pour of basketball in the Florida
tropics.
[email protected]ANALYSIS
After slow buildup, NBA’s restart in the bubble got o≠ with a bang
MIKE EHRMANN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lakers star LeBron James hit the game-winner against the Clippers on the first night of the r estart.