WEDNESDAY, MAY 25 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 D5
19 c hildren.
Under the roof of the Enter-
tainment and Sports Arena, it was
all about defense. The 50 points
were the fewest the Mystics have
allowed this season — and the
fewest scored by the Dream (4-3).
Much of that was thanks to
Clark, who was Rhyne Howard’s
shadow. Last month’s No. 1 draft
pick has had a tremendous start
to her career; she was named the
season’s first Eastern Conference
player of the week and entered
Tuesday’s game leading the
WNBA in scoring. But the Mystics
kept her scoreless on 0-for-9
shooting, with Clark taking on
much of the responsibility.
On Friday in Georgia, Howard
scored 19 first-half points against
the Mystics before being held to
two in the second half when Clark
turned up the defense and Wash-
ington grabbed a 78-73 win. Clark
was even tougher Tuesday.
“It was bound to happen,”
Dream guard Erica Wheeler said.
“She’s a great kid. She’s not sitting
in her [expletive] right now or
pissed off about that she didn’t
make a basket. It happens.... We
just have to help her out as a vet
and just get her out of it.”
Clark wasn’t just a defensive
stalwart; she scored seven of the
Mystics’ first nine points and fin-
ished with 11 points and three
rebounds. Elena Delle Donne had
15 points, Kennedy Burke scored
13 off the bench, and Ariel Atkins
added 10. Aari McDonald had 10
points for the Dream, which shot
35.7 percent and had 25 turnovers
that Washington turned into 20
points.
Here is what else to know
about the Mystics’ win:
The statement
Natasha Cloud broke out an
old T-shirt on Tuesday: She sport-
ed an orange tie-dyed shirt from
MYSTICS FROM D1
Mystics’
defense
stymies
Dream
game for personal reasons, so
associate head coach Eric Thiba-
ult ran the show. This was the
third game Eric has served as the
top coach after Mike missed two
game because of coronavirus is-
sues last season. Eric lost both of
those but earned his first win
Tuesday.
Still, the victory goes on Mike’s
record, and he is expected to
coach Saturday’s game at the Con-
necticut Sun.4K for Delle Donne
Delle Donne became the sec-
ond-fastest player in WNBA his-
tory to score 4,000 points. She
reached the mark — landing ex-
actly on it after Tuesday’s match-
up — in 198 games; Diana Taurasi
needed 197.our job and come together as a
community because this is abso-
lutely ridiculous at this point. To
the families in Texas, the Mystics
are sending our love, our prayers.
We prayed for you all today. And
we’ll continue to pray for you and
we will continue to fight for you.
And we’ll fight for everyone in
this country.”Full team, minus one
The Mystics’ roster was at full
strength for the first time since
2019, if not longer. Clark returned
from a scheduled day off, Wil-
liams and Burke joined the team
from overseas recently, and no
one was on the injury report.
The roster was fully available,
but the coaching staff was not.
Coach Mike Thibault missed the“This isn’t about taking peo-
ple’s rights away from bearing
arms. This is about putting sensi-
ble gun laws in so this doesn’t
happen again. We cannot contin-
ue to make the same mistakes. We
cannot continue to allow these
things to happen in our country
and nothing is being done with it
for money, for profit. So I’m call-
ing on everyone. Please put this
out. Post it. Write to your not only
local representatives but your
federal representatives and tell
them you are tired. Tell them that
we are tired of lives being lost in
this country for senseless [exple-
tive]. It is time to implement gun
laws and stop caring about profit
and money over people and lives.
“If our government is not going
to do our job, then we’ve got to dothe Everytown for Gun Safety
organization during warmups.
Cloud and the Mystics have been
involved in activism against gun
violence in recent years. The Mys-
tics held a moment of silence
before the game, and Cloud repre-
sented the team in comments to
reporters afterward.
“We have an issue in this coun-
try. Not only white supremacy, we
also have a gun violence issue,”
she said. “This is us using our
platform, right? This game
doesn’t matter.... The 18 lives
that were lost today from sense-
less gun violence in Texas at an
elementary school, we’re talking
about our kids not being safe to go
to school and our government is
still not implementing sensible
gun laws.TERRANCE WILLIAMS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Natasha Cloud addressed Tuesday’s mass shooting in Texas. “We cannot continue to allow these things to happen in our country,” she said.ASSOCIATED PRESSMarina Mabrey scored 20
points, Allisha Gray had 17 points
and eight rebounds, and the Dal-
las Wings beat the Connecticut
Sun, 85-77, on Tuesday night in
Uncasville, Conn., for their fourth
straight road victory.
Dallas trailed 38-27 at halftime
before taking its first lead since
the opening minutes late in the
third quarter. Mabrey capped a
12-2 run with a three-pointer to
help the Wings take a 53-51 lead.
Arike Ogunbowale added 16
points for Dallas (5-2). Kayla
Thornton grabbed 10 rebounds,
and Isabelle Harrison had nine
points and eight rebounds. Ma-
brey made three three-pointers
and reached 20 points for the third
time this season.
Alyssa Thomas, Jonquel Jones
and Brionna Jones each scored 13
points for Connecticut (4-2),
which saw its four-game winning
streak snapped. Thomas moved
into third on the Sun’s rebounding
list.
Connecticut announced before
the game that Jasmine Thomas
would miss the remainder of the
season with a torn ACL.
l SKY 95, FEVER 90: Candace
Parker had 16 points, six rebounds
and seven assists, and Azura Ste-
vens added 15 points as host Chi-
cago b eat I ndiana.
Kelsey Mitchell scored 25
points for the Fever, which has lost
five games in a row.
l LYNX 84, LIBERTY 78: In
Minneapolis, Aerial Powers had 18
points and nine rebounds and Syl-
via F owles added 14 points and 14
rebounds to lead Minnesota over
New York.
Kayla McBride scored 15 points
for the Lynx.
Natasha Howard led the Liber-
ty with 23 points.WNBA ROUNDUPDallas getsits fourthwin in r owon the roadWINGS 85,
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