MYSTICS NOTES

• The Washington Mystics (2-2), were defeated, 81-76, by the Atlanta Dream (2-1) Friday night at the Charles E. Smith Center. With the win, Atlanta takes a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five WNBA Semifinals series.
• Mystics forward-guard Aerial Powers led the team with 18 points, including 8-8 (1.000) from the free throw line, and a career-playoff-high eight rebounds. Powers’ 18-point performance came up two points shy of the Mystics record for points scored by a player off the bench in a postseason game.
• Mystics center LaToya Sanders blocked six shots, setting a new Mystics postseason record and tying the franchise’s all-time record, to go along with 12 points, eight rebounds, and a career-playoff-high four assists.
• Mystics rookie guard Ariel Atkins set new career playoff highs in points (17), rebounds (8) and minutes (32). Atkins who was recently named to the WNBA All-Defensive Second Team, shot 6-10 (.600) from the field and 3-4 (.750) from 3-point range. Atkins has scored in double digits in three of Washington’s four postseason games.
• Mystics forward Tianna Hawkins, who started in place of forward Elena Delle Donne (left knee bone bruise), scored seven points and grabbed nine rebounds in 19 minutes of play. Hawkins’ nine rebounds are a new playoff career high.
• Washington recorded eight blocks as a team, tying the franchise playoff high set in Game 2 against Atlanta.
• Washington hosts Atlanta on Sunday, September 2 at the Charles E. Smith Center in Game 4 of the WNBA Semifinals series. The game will be at 3:00 pm.

DREAM NOTES

• Tiffany Hayes recorded her first playoff double-double with 23 points and 11 rebounds. This is the 10^th time in her career she has dropped double-digits during the Playoffs. It was her fourth Playoff game with 20+ points.
• Hayes grabbed a career-high five offensive rebounds in today’s game.
• Elizabeth Williams closed the game in double-figures for the fourth time in her career during the Playoffs with 14 points.
• Williams has grabbed at least four rebounds in all five Playoff games in her career.
• Breland finished with double-digit rebounds (11) for the second-straight game and third time in her Playoff career. She now has 34 in the series.
• Brittney Sykes chipped in 17 points, her second double-digit effort of the series.
• With three blocks tonight, the Dream now have 20 for the series, which is a new franchise record for one series.
• Over the first three games of the series, Atlanta has grabbed 90 defensive rebounds, the most in franchise history for a series.
• The Dream’s 17 offensive rebounds was the second (18 record) most in franchise history in the Playoffs.
• After only recording three steals over the first two games of the series, Atlanta finished with nine tonight.

MYSTICS HEAD COACH MIKE THIBAULT

On the game:

“I have a real simple opening remark. It’s hard to win a game when you shoot 36 percent. I thought our defense, for the most part, was good. It was a pretty wild game. I thought they hurt us early with their offensive rebounding and then it became a slug fest of missed shots, offensive rebounds, and free throws. They played better than us.”

On playing without Elena Delle Donne:

“You are taking 20 points, 10 rebounds out of your lineup and the fact that she also draws other defenders to give other people good looks, it’s a hard game for somebody like Kristi [Toliver] who can play off somebody like that to get clean looks. It’s like any great star in this league. Your team is just never going to be the same without them. I thought we put up a great fight. I don’t think we played great offensively at all. I thought our three bench players [Aerial] Powers, [Tierra] Ruffin-Pratt and [Myisha] Hines-Allen did a great job coming in. I thought LaToya [Sanders] did her normal, steady-eddy job, rebounding, scoring and covering up for everybody else and then Ariel Atkins scored for us. We just made a ton of mistakes defensively. Part of it is some unfamiliarity in people playing in the lineup. I played Aerial Powers at the power forward spot for 20-plus minutes tonight and she hasn’t played one minute of that for us this year, but out of necessity and with Elena [Delle Donne] and other people struggling shooting, it became our option and it became a good option on the offensive end. On the defensive end, we are just not on a string when you do that.”

On going with Aerial Powers at power forward:

“Make them have to play differently on the defensive end, spread the floor a little bit. With Aerial Powers and Ariel Atkins, you have two people that can shoot jump shots and drive. I thought that would be a factor and it was. You could be undersized and still be a good rebounder. I thought we got that tonight. It wasn’t perfect or pretty, but I just felt that gave us a better chance once I saw the start of the first and the third quarter when our starting group was struggling at both ends of the floor to be honest. I just felt that it was maybe a way to combat it and do something different. When you take out somebody like Elena [Delle Donne], you are not going to probably win playing conventionally against a team that is that good. You can do that some other times, but we had to find some other advantage that we could get.

MYSTICS CENTER LATOYA SANDERS

On how Elena Delle Donne’s absence impacted the game:

“I think it was mostly felt when we had to play the four-guard…It was challenging, you don’t really know the offense from the post, and we couldn’t completely change our offense, because we did not know if she was going to play or not until today. We did what we could this morning and we kind of played out on the fly today.”

On helping out the younger players during big games:

“When people are getting mad or down on themselves on a certain play, I kind of want them to look at me or I will tell them it’s OK, we still have two quarters left. I am the kind of person that I don’t get too high and I don’t get too low, I kind of am a steady calm person on the court. I hope that they can just see that it is going to be OK we can move on to the next play.”

What is it going to take to extend the season:

“We played with a lot of energy. We were all over the court flying, hustling we gave it our all. I just think we messed up on the tactics of the game. When we were flying around we were playing hard, but we were not necessarily playing smart all the time. I think if we can combine the two we will be fine on Sunday.”

MYSTICS FORWARD AERIAL POWERS

On Elena Delle Donne not playing:

“Elena is an amazing player, she is a very elite player; because she was out not just me everybody has to step up, in every way. She brings a lot to the table, not just offensively but defensively, rebounding and everything. Being that she was out, I just tried to do my best and so did my teammates.”

How important her role is on the team:

“I am a player that whatever my team needs I try to give to them. I realized that they needed some help rebounding, so I tried to make that my goal to get in there and rebound. Whatever gaps there are to fill I just try and do my best and fill them.”

On changing play style with Delle Donne out:

“I was happy, this is the reason why I was happy. Coming from a guard and trying to rebound is so hard coming from the perimeter, and trying to get in there and rebound. I felt like at least me, I would already be down there and trying to box the girls out and out jump them if I can and get some rebounds.”

MYSTICS LEADERS:
POINTS: Aerial Powers – 18
REBOUNDS: Tianna Hawkins – 9

ASSISTS: Kristi Toliver – 6
STEALS: Four players – 1

ATLANTA DREAM HEAD COACH NICKI COLLEN

On the game:

“I was telling my team I’ve only coached in three playoff games but that felt like a grind-it-out playoff type game. Nothing came easy. I thought that Washington was incredibly scrappy. Obviously undersized a lot of the game; really went small and played [Aerial] Powers at the four. But in doing that, they were really aggressive; they created great spacing; really attacked the rim; got to the foul line. Really good battle for us. I thought Brittney Sykes had huge minutes in the fourth quarter. Hasn’t shot the ball as well lately, so to see her step up and make two three’s in the fourth quarter. [Monique] Billings with [Jessica] Breland in foul trouble, huge game, couple pull up jump shots late in the clock that didn’t look very rookie like. So, really proud of her effort because we didn’t obviously go very deep in our bench.”

On turning things up in the fourth quarter:

“I told the team when we went into that fourth quarter that even though the three didn’t count, and obviously you’re going to feel better about a five-point lead than a two-point lead, this team knows how to win games late. We guard people and we have players that can make plays. So when we get into tight situations, there’s rarely much panic with this group. So if it’s not one player, it’s going to be another and I thought Brittney hitting that early three and then going down which has happened multiple times this year, but for her to kind of battle back and give us those big minutes. I just trust a lot of people on this team, and I trust them to take shots. We’re now 18-0 when we’re leading going into the fourth quarter, so we know when it comes to win time, we know that’s us. Not that we’ve never battled from behind, but we know when we take a lead into the fourth quarter, we know how to grind it out.”

On the Mystics playing without Elena Delle Donne:

“Early in the season they lost Delle Donne for three games on that West Coast swing, but [LaToya] Sanders wasn’t playing like she is now. She’s playing incredible. [Natasha] Cloud missed some of those games too, so it was even hard to look back at those games and try to guess what Washington was going to do if she didn’t play because they’re a different team with Cloud, they’re a different team with Sanders playing extended minutes and being so good in that pick-and-pop game. I think it takes time to feel it out. At the same time, I’ll tell you that I didn’t go into this going sigh of relief, Delle Donne isn’t playing’ because I think there’s a mentality when you lose someone, that everybody else steps it up a little bit more. You saw Aerial Powers get this great opportunity and play a lot of minutes and be really aggressive. In a great players absence, this league is too good to not have a bench that’s going to really step it up so it didn’t make it easy because you knew they were going to scratch and claw and prove that they could win without Delle Donne.”

DREAM GUARD TIFFANY HAYES 

On playing defense: 

“I just always think, we got to get in there and rebound. They were doing it on us so I’m that type of player. If they gone do it to us, we’re gone do it to them too. I was just trying to get in there and give us as many offensive chances as we can get.”

On guarding Kristi Toliver:

“I think the key is me and [Alex] Bentley just take turns. Doesn’t get us, I mean, gets us tired because she’s all over the place but when I can take a break sometimes when Bentley comes in and then she takes a break when I’m in the game guarding her. It’s good to have two people that have great defense on her all the times because she can go off at any moment. She’s a great player. And then everybody helping out if she beats us on the drive…Just fortunate to have a lot of people who can guard.”

DREAM CENTER ELIZABETH WILLIAMS

On the Mystics: 

“Well, we knew that they were going to be a lot more aggressive. A lot scrappier, as you saw. Getting their hands on a lot of balls in the paint. I mean, [Elena] Delle Donne does have a lot of length, even if she doesn’t necessarily block a lot of shots so we did want to still try to attack and get those drop passes. But they did do a really good job of having their guards drop and get their hands on a lot of balls.”

On playing the Mystics playing without Angel McCoughtry:  

“I think Coach Nicki did a pretty good job, just preparing us, you know, from day one, from training camp. She wanted us to play a certain way. Especially, defensively and offensively. She changed lineups a bit. She experimented with the bench. So I think it’s kind of like how the Mystics were today. When somebody goes down, you just play a little harder and play for each other. We’ve been fortunate to have the extra time to get use to playing without Angel (McCoughtry).”

DREAM LEADERS:
POINTS: Tiffany Hayes – 23
REBOUNDS: Jessica Breland, Hayes – 11

ASSISTS: Four players – 3
STEALS: Three players – 2