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FRIDAY, JULY 31 , 2020. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/SPORTS M2 D
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
SEC plans to shorten its season to 10 games per team,
eliminate nonconference games and open Sept. 26. D2
BASEBALL
Two positive tests among Phillies staffers lead to more
postponements and a broadening crisis for MLB. D4HOCKEY
Capitals defenseman John Carlson misses practice,
but team hopes he will be back on the ice Saturday. D6Let’s imagine,
because we have
experienced so
little joy from
sports since
March, that the
World Series
champion
Washington
Nationals will get to play baseball
for quite a while this summer.
Let’s hope they feel that way, too.
That prospect may seem
problematic right now. But why
not enjoy every game we get?
How often do you get to watch a
World Series champ? (Answer:
Around here, once every
95 years.)
Besides, if major league
baseball rides out this pandemic
storm, as we all hope, maybe the
Nats will play a whole mini-season.
Every major league player —
and fan for that matter — is torn
by two states of minds right now:
Play the season or cancel it. No
one knows which it will be. Yet
they are incompatible attitudes.
The “cancel” mind-set is useless
and needs to go.
Right now, the Nats face a
classic, focus-eroding problem.
They have four days off after
Thursday’s 6-4 victory over the
Toronto Blue Jays at Nationals
Park got their record up to 3-4.
Washington’s three-game series
in Miami this weekend was
canceled for two stunning
reasons, both unique in major
league history.
First, 17 Marlins players tested
positive for the novel coronavirus,
SEE BOSWELL ON D4W ith pandemic altering their focus,
Nats need to restore their eye for detail
Thomas
BoswellBY KAREEM COPELANDThe Seattle Storm entered this
pandemic-altered season as a
favorite to win the WNBA cham-
pionship. After missing last sea-
son, 11-time all-star Sue Bird and
former MVP Breanna Stewart
both returned to a deep lineup
that won the 2018 title. The
Storm’s opponent Thursday
night, the Washington Mystics,
didn’t receive much hype be-
cause starters Elena Delle Don-
ne, Tina Charles, Natasha Cloud
and LaToya Sanders are all un-
available to play for the defend-
ing champions.
None of that mattered Thurs-
day as the Mystics continued to
silence their doubters with an-
other offensive explosion in an
89-71 blowout win over the
Storm in Bradenton, Fla., in a
game that was never truly close
after the first quarter.
Washington (3-0) has scored
284 points this season, the third
most in WNBA history through a
team’s first three games.
“[I] think we’re just finding a
way,” guard Ariel Atkins said.
“We’re not getting stagnant.
We’re trying to move the ball as
best we can.... Just taking the
open shot [in the first quarter],
not passing up the shot. Not only
does that work for me, but [it]
works for our team. When we
take the shots that are open and
don’t overpass or overshoot, it
gives us the opportunity to do
what we do throughout the rest
of the game.”
The Mystics showed right
away they had no intentions of
slowing down, jumping to a
12-2 lead almost before anyone
could break a sweat. Seattle (2-1)
started 2 for 10 from the field and
never really found a consistent
groove.
The Mystics beat up on their
first two opponents by getting to
the basket on a regular basis, but
they are still a smallish team
without Delle Donne, Charles
and Sanders. The Storm got a
quick lesson in what the Mystics
can do from the perimeter.
Washington knocked down 10
of its first 14 three-point at-
tempts while building a
5 0-32 halftime lead and finished
the night 15 for 32 (46.9 percent)
from deep. Six different players
hit a three. Atkins had a happy
24th birthday, matching a career
high with five threes on her way
to a game-high 22 points, and
Leilani Mitchell went 4 for 6
from long range. Essence Carson
and Kiara Leslie each hit a pair of
threes off the bench.
“We’re not going to overpower
people in the post every night,”
SEE MYSTICS ON D6Unsung
Mystics’
win streak
hits three
MYSTICS 89,
STORM 71CHARLES KING/ORLANDO SENTINEL/ASSOCIATED PRESS
New Orleans Pelicans players kneel for the national anthem before their 106-104 loss to the Utah Jazz.Inside: Wizards prepare for restart
with focus on a familiar problem. D6Mystics vs. Sky
Tomorrow, 6 p.m., NBCSW, NBA TVMets at Nationals
Tuesday, 7:05 p.m., MASN2BY JESSE DOUGHERTYA bullpen combination of
Ryne Harper, Sam Freeman, Javy
Guerra, Tanner Rainey and Dan-
iel Hudson doesn’t sound, at first
mention, like a winning bingo
card. But that’s who relieved for
the Washington Nationals on
Thursday, and the Nationals held
on to beat the Toronto Blue Jays,
6-4, in another road game in
their own park.
The Blue Jays, shunned from
Canada for 2020, had their up-
coming weekend series against
the Philadelphia Phillies post-
poned. Word officially came in
the third inning, right as the
Nationals’ bullpen was begin-
ning to stretch. The Nationals
are familiar with shifting cir-cumstances, having had an up-
coming trip to Miami wiped out.
That’s life in baseball during a
pandemic: an ever-evolving
schedule and odd winning for-
mulas. Erick Fedde was lifted
after 3^1 / 3 innings, then had his
shaky outing erased by the
patchwork bullpen and the Na-
tionals’ bats. The offense collect-
ed 13 hits and was keyed by
Starlin Castro and Carter Kie-
boom. It all helped the Nationals
improve to 3-4.
“I always say that I believe in
these guys,” Nationals Manager
Dave Maritnez said, nodding to
the offense’s slow start to the
SEE NATIONALS ON D4Some relief before the breakNATIONALS 6, BLUE JAYS 4
Bullpen lets team hit idle weekend on winning note
JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POST
Nationals third baseman Carter Kieboom gets set to tag out the Blue Jays’ Teoscar Hernández, who was attempting to steal second in the second inning Thursday.BY BEN GOLLIVERkissimmee, fla. — More than
four months of waiting, confer-
ence calls and negotiations led the
NBA to its relaunch Thursday, an
understated but dignified show-
case that reflected basketball’s on-
going battle with the novel coro-
navirus and its commitment to
social justice advocacy.
The NBA held its first meaning-
ful games since March 11 inside
nondescript gyms at the ESPN
Wide World of Sports Complex
with a crowd that numbered only
a few hundred, ending a 140-day
stretch without basketball that
saw the league’s regular season
interrupted and its postseason,
draft and free agency period de-
layed. The Utah Jazz’s 106-104 win
over the New Orleans Pelicans
and the Los Angeles Lakers’ 103-
101 victory over the Los Angeles
Clippers marked the first official
action of the NBA’s bubble con-
cept, which brought 22 teams and
more than 300 players to Florida
to crown a champion and recoup
more than $1 billion in lost reve-
nue caused by the pandemic.
The night opened with the Peli-
cans and Jazz players and coaches,
along with their game’s referees,
locking arms and kneeling in
union for the national anthem
while an extended video montage
played. Players also donned black
“Black Lives Matter” warmup
shirts and wore social justice mes-
sages such as “Say Her Name” and
“I Am a Man” in place of their last
names on the backs of their jer-seys. The playing surface also was
emblazoned with a large “Black
Lives Matter” decal.
After the teams dispersed to
their benches, National Basket-
ball Players Association Executive
Director Michele Roberts, who
has guided the players’ efforts to
continue their advocacy while in
the bubble, led a scattered round
of applause and later said in a
statement that she was “very
proud” of the “sober, powerfully
moving” and “heartfelt” demon-
stration.
The scene repeated a few hours
later when the Lakers and Clip-
pers knelt together during the an-
them in front of a video board that
displayed a large American flag.
The anthem demonstrations
marked the NBA’s first since NFL
SEE NBA ON D6NBA has a ‘heartfelt’ restart
Advocating social justice,
the league stages
first games since March