Nikki Blue spent her first two seasons in Washington as the Mystics' backup point guard. Mitchell Layton/NBAE/Getty Images Amber Jacobs was signed as a free agent after spending four seasons in Minnesota. Ned Dishman/NBAE/Getty Images

The 2008 WNBA season opens on Saturday and the Washington Mystics still have one important question to answer before they take the court against the Indiana Fever.

Who will be their starting point guard?

The candidates – Nikki Blue and Amber Jacobs – have been battling throughout training camp to fill the spot left when the Mystics parted ways with last year’s starter, Nikki Teasley.

“It’s been going well,” Blue said prior to the Mystics preseason game against New York last Thursday. “I think I’ve been playing really well and so has Amber. I think we compliment each other more than it being a competition.”

Jacobs was quick to compliment her competition as well.

“I absolutely love Nikki Blue,” Jacobs said. “I think she’s a great point guard and I have a great respect for her. It’s been a lot of fun just competing against each other.”

Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, both of them were quick to look at the bottom line.

“Of course I want the job,” Blue said. “I’ve been waiting two years, hearing the coaches say, ‘You’re a starter. You’re a starter.’ You know I’m still fighting for it and I want that spot and I believe that it is mine. But she has a fair shot, just as well as I do. We’ll see what happens.”

Blue is entering her third season in the WNBA and served as Teasley’s backup for the past two seasons in Washington. Jacobs was signed in the offseason as a free agent after spending her first four years in the league with the Minnesota Lynx as both a backup and a starter.

“Do both of us want to start? Probably, yes. Who doesn’t want to start?” Jacobs said. “I think we’ve really helped each other out. She’s really brought me in and helped me understand the system of what (Mystics coach) Tree (Rollins) wants and I’ve just been having fun with it.”

Both Blue and Jacobs bring their own sets of strengths and weaknesses to the table. Rollins has praised Jacobs for her outside shooting and commended Blue for her pressure defense against opposing guards.

“I think my biggest strength is my leadership; I’ve gotten so much better at being a vocal leader out on the court and in the locker room as well,” Blue said. “Also, pushing the ball, knowing all of the plays, getting everybody where they’re supposed to be, everything that a point guard is supposed to be. I’ve sat behind Nikki Teasley long enough to see what a point guard is supposed to do and I’ve stepped in right away this year and done all of those things.”

Blue, who lists patience as the weakness that she needs to work on most, has an added advantage over Jacobs in that she has been in Washington the past two years and is more familiar with her teammates and Rollins and knows what he is looking for.

Jacobs knows she's at a slight disadvantage.

“It’s a little difficult because you’re trying to figure out the players, where they want the ball, the certain sets and how Tree wants to see them executed as well as he just wants us to play basketball and read the game,” Jacobs said.

“Coming from Minnesota, where Coach Z (Don Zierden) was a lot more disciplined in the structure of his plays and what he wanted out of them, Tree gives us a little more freedom to do whatever we want to do. So I'm just trying to have a mentality where the main thing is taking care of the ball and then getting the ball to the right people.”

Jacobs says her biggest strength is being a scoring threat at the point guard position and she takes pride in knocking down open shots when they come her way. On the other hand, she knows there is work to be done on the other end of the floor.

“Defense has always been my weakness in the league, so just continuing to try to be able to pressure at the point guard position full court, but at the same time keeping my player in front of me is something I'm working on,” she said. “I think the other thing is continuing to make the right decision, the smart decision, maybe the easy decision; sometimes I try too hard to make a great play.”

As part of his evaluation process, Rollins gave both players a start during the team’s first two preseason games.

Blue started the first game, a 90-82 overtime win over the Sacramento Monarchs. In 35 minutes, she scored 15 points to go along with four rebounds and five assists. However, she also committed five turnovers and five fouls. Jacobs played only 12 minutes against Sacramento, but scored six points to go with a rebound, an assist and a turnover.

“Nikki played really well against very good guard talent in Sacramento,” Rollins said prior to the Liberty game. “She played pretty good, so we’ll see how Jacobs responds.”

Jacobs got her start in New York and was joined in the starting lineup by Alana Beard and Monique Currie, who were playing in their first games since returning from overseas.

While Jacobs started the game against the Liberty, she only played a total of 14 minutes, compared to 26 for Blue. Jacobs scored eight points and tallied two rebounds and an assist with no turnovers. Blue, who scored all six of her points in the game’s final three minutes as the Mystics rallied, also collected two rebounds, three assists, two turnovers and two steals.

“Amber made some big jump shots for us,” Rollins said after the game. “Nikki Blue came in and she guided the team. Down the stretch she did everything we wanted her to do.”

Rollins said he and his staff will make a decision prior to Tuesday’s final preseason game against the Houston Comets. Either way, he is encouraged by having two quality guards on his team to make his decision so difficult.

“Whoever is the best player is the best player,” Blue said. “It all comes down to what happens out there on the court and who produces. I know Coach Tree, he’s a fair guy, so whoever is going to produce the most and whoever is going to be the best for the team will start.”

Washington vs. Sacramento, May 5, 2008
PLAYER	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
*Nikki Blue	35	4-6	1-1	6-8	0	4	4	5	1	0	5	5	15
Amber Jacobs	12	2-4	0-0	2-2	0	1	1	1	0	0	1	1	6
Washington vs. New York, May 8, 2008
PLAYER	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	OREB	DREB	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
*Amber Jacobs	14	2-6	2-4	2-2	1	1	2	1	0	0	0	2	8
Nikki Blue	26	2-7	1-3	1-4	0	2	2	3	2	0	2	0	6
* denotes starter for game