The second round of the playoffs is now set after the Washington Mystics and the Phoenix Mercury were victorious in their opening round, single-elimination postseason matchups against the Dallas Wings and Seattle Storm, respectively.
The Mystics won 86-76 over the Wings and the Mercury earned a 79-69 victory to dispatch the Storm.
In both season series between these respective teams, road teams were victorious in all three matchups. As we know, the playoffs can be a different animal in basketball and the teams that were home sweet home picked up wins in both instances.
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In Elena Delle Donne’s playoff debut with the Mystics, she had herself a banner night at the Capital One Arena—a double-double with 25 points and 11 rebounds. Kristi Toliver and Emma Meeseman had 16 points each and Krystal Thomas pulled down 17 rebounds—a playoff franchise record.
The Wings’ final 2017 ledger read like this—Aerial Powers scored 21 points, but with over a minute left to play, was ejected from the game after drawing a second technical foul. Skylar Diggins-Smith and Glory Johnson had 15 points each. Johnson also finished with a double-double as she grabbed 14 rebounds.
The Mystics claimed a 71-58 lead with over five minutes left to play only for Dallas to trim its deficit to four at 71-67 with just over three minutes to play. The ink was dry on this game when Washington made 11 of 15 from the free throw line the rest of the way.
Photo Credit: David Kadlubowski/AZ Central Sports/USA Today Network
By virtue of the Mystics win over the Wings, it was time to determine where they would head next—New York or Connecticut. Either destination would be a short trip up I-95 for Washington. Phoenix or Seattle would have a considerably longer travel.
Eventually, the Mercury also were victorious by 10 points as they bested the Storm 86-76 in a game that was played at the Wells Fargo Arena on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe.
There was too much Brittney Griner for Seattle to handle—she finished with 23 points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots. The Mercury also got a major contribution from Leilani Mitchell who finished with 17 points and made three of her six three-point attempts. Yvonne Turner had 15 and went five of seven from the field and Diana Taurasi had 14.
Phoenix got 71 of their 79 points from their starting five.
For the Storm, Breanna Stewart scored 23 points and Jewell Loyd had 17. Both Stewart (6-17) and Loyd (4-14) struggled from the field shooting a combined 10 for 31. Sue Bird concluded her evening with 10 points.
The difference in this game was the third quarter. Seattle only trailed by two at one point (43-41) before the following three minutes saw Phoenix embark on a 9-0 run that upped their lead to 52-41.
In similar fashion to the Wings-Mystics game, the Storm managed to cut its deficit down to four late. It was 67-63 with over a minute left to play before threes from Taurasi and Mitchell sealed this one for the Mercury.
With Phoenix being the highest seeded of the four teams playing on Wednesday night, a win for them automatically meant they would travel to Mohegan Sun Arena to face the Connecticut Sun in a second-round single-elimination game at 3 p.m. The Mystics will do the same and shall travel to Madison Square Garden to play the Liberty at 5 p.m.
Both games are scheduled for Sunday to air on ESPN2.
By: Akiem Bailum (@AkiemBailum on Twitter, Instagram)
