Beard and the Mystics return to MCI Center Thursday night when they host the Fever (8 pm). Mitchell Layton/NBAE/Getty Images

This is our longest stretch away from home of the season, and as a rookie there are some small adjustments to make to life on the road. It’s not a huge adjustment, but the road is different from when we traveled in college. We’ll arrive in a certain city and Coach tells us when practice time is the next day, but it’s just 2:00 pm now and we have the whole day to ourselves to do whatever we want. That was probably the biggest adjustment for Kaayla and I, but it’s fun, and we’re loving it.

When I’m home I always have something to do. Whether it’s a meeting or interviews or things like that, there is a lot going on around here. Practice is usually over by 1:00 pm but I’m never home until around 5:00 pm. I like walking around and seeing the different neighborhoods. That’s one of my favorite things to do right now because it gives me time to reflect on everything that’s going on.

I think that throughout my four years at Duke I had the same schedule ever day. Class and practice. Class and practice. It was all regimented, day after day. Right now I don’t have all that much to do. I’m trying to read more, get involved in the community more, and I’m picking up golf. I’m in the process of buying clubs, and I’m going to start golfing.

On the court, our recent success feels good. I think we’re finally coming together and developing that all-important chemistry. I’ve been saying all along that once we get that chemistry and team discipline, we are going to be a heck of a team. Everyone is growing into their role; our rotations are good, and everyone is giving their all every time on the court. We’re getting over that hump, and we’re doing it as a team.

It’s got to be a team effort. It’s not going to be any one person doing it all, and it shouldn’t be that way. Chamique is almost a guarantee for 20 points a night, but we need a total team effort. Recently we had as many as four people score in double figures in the same game and that’s what it takes.

Personally, my contributions are not all about scoring points. I’ve been contributing in other ways all of my life. I was never just a scorer. I could always score, but now I’m playing a different position. At the point, I need to get my teammates involved. I love the assists. On defense, it’s the steals, the blocks, the rebounds; whatever the little things are. Scoring is not the always the key, and the only statistic that really matters in the wins.

Right now our goal is to get to .500. We are playing well right now, and trying to get over that hump. We’ll try to finish this stretch strong, and come back home to get it done for our fans. We got to get to .500 and take it from there. We will.

Beard is averaging 7.3 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 2.0 steals and .83 blocks per game. As of June 29th, Beard is the only player in the WNBA that ranks among the top four rookies in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks per game.