Letting the Numbers Tell the Story

A statistical look at the Mystics' recent string of wins shows how the team surged into the postseason
By Brian A. Sereno, WashingtonMystics.com
September 23, 2004
Chasity Melvin increased her scoring and rebounding averages during the team's recent streak.
Mitchell Layton/NBAE/Getty Images
Two days before the Mystics tip-off the 2004 Playoffs in front of their home crowd at MCI Center, one thing has become abundantly clear: some of us owe the Mystics an apology. Written off long ago, and left for dead in the Playoff race, the Mystics did something that few outside of the organization and their fans ever believed they could.

However, it would be unfair to this group of women to suggest that they did the impossible, as they insisted all along that their goals were entirely possible. The Mystics, with a fighter’s mentality taken from their coach, their rookie leader, and their battle-tested veteran that has been with the team from the beginning, accomplished what they long knew they were capable of.

At this point, September 4th is the most distant of memories. After back-to-back losses to the Indiana Fever to re-open the season following the Olympic break, the Mystics were a 12-16 team, looking up at the other five teams in the Eastern Conference.

So how exactly did the Mystics prove us wrong? The true answer is found deep within Michael Adams and Linda Hargrove, Stephanie Ready and Ledell Eackles, and players from Beard and Page, Melvin, Dales-Schuman, Miller, Sanford, Jackson, Smith, Gortman, Chones and Brown.

A look at the stats from the last six games, as compared with those from the first 28, shows a team playing their best basketball of the season, when it matters the most. Charged with elevating the level of their play for the playoff push, the Mystics, as individuals but more importantly as a team, rose to the occasion.

In the first 28 games of the season Alana Beard averaged a solid 11.1 points per game. In the last six games the rookie exploded for a superstar’s 22.5 points per game average. Beard’s rebounds per game jumped from 3.9 to 5.7; her assists from 2.4 to 4.2; her three-point field goal percentage from .333 to .500; her field-goal percentage from .399 to .467; and her free-throw percentage from .669 to an astounding .903 (28-31) in the last six games.

And Beard is not the nearly the only one whose stats have soared of late. Chasity Melvin averaged 7.9 points and 3.4 rebounds per game through Washington’s 12-16 start. In their 5-1 sprint to the finish, Melvin poured in 12.2 points per game to go with 5.8 boards per contest. Nakia Sanford’s 3.9 rebounds per game prior to recent six-game stretch swelled to 9.5 over the last half dozen.

Sanford (.514 field goal percentage), Murriel Page (.517) and Coco Miller (.667) have combined to hit 54-96 (.562) from the field in their last six games, spearheading a team effort of marksmanship that saw the Mystics connect on over 45 percent of their shots.

As for the stat that matters the most, the Mystics have seen the greatest improvement. A 12-16 team that morphed into a 5-1 unit that is among the league’s hottest, improved their scoring average from 67.1 points per game (first 28) to 74.3 (last six), while decreasing their points allowed from 70.7 to 67.3.

To paraphrase the movie Old School and its legendary character Frank the Tank, that’s how you do it.

That’s how the Mystics made believers of us all.