Lauren Betts is heading to Turkey to join top Euro team Fenerbache. She will play alongside Emma Meesseman.

Georgia Amoore has had an up-and-down rookie campaign with the Mystics, but her performance against the Mercury showed her potential.

This article was recommended by the writers at No Cap Space. Focusing on Georgia’s potential allows more nuance than the conversation around her typically entails. One great performance does not guarantee this is the player she will be the rest of her career, however long that may be. But it does show why Sydney and the Mystics have been patient with giving her room to develop this year. I don’t know if she’ll still be with the Mystics two years from now. But it’s looking more likely she can carve out a role somewhere in the league, particularly if she can continue to hit more of her shots.

The Mystics are generally prioritizing developing their players and putting them in new learning situations to grow their skills. They prioritize this over making moves to maximize the chances of winning any individual game. This probably explains some of the unusual rotations. It’s a balancing act which can be frustrating for some fans who see what this team is capable of now. And we’ll see how they balance these objectives heading into the playoffs where a deeper run offers more experience for everyone. For the moment though, Georgia’s recent break out illustrates how this longer term development approach can pay off with some patience.

Just realized that the Commanders - who have been my team for 52 years - are playing the Cowboys at 4:25pm on Sunday September 20 and the Mystics are playing the Fever at 4pm.

This is only my second year watching the Mystics but they've totally won me over. I'm taping the Commanders and watching the Mystics live. It doesn't help that the Commanders O line is for shit this year and I'm not looking forward to Jaden running for his life.

Anyone else a fan of both teams?

Replacements for A’ja and KP. I understand KP. Not sure about A’ja’s issue unless she’s saving for postseason run.

EDIT: identifying players who they replaced.

Congrats to Alicia! We'll have a player at the World Cup after all!

Remaining Schedule

MIN: vs NY | @ CON | @ IND | vs IND

GSV: vs POR | vs SEA | @ POR | @ LA

LV: LV @ SEA | vs SEA | vs LA | @ PHO

ATL: vs CON | vs CHI | @ NYL | @ NYL

IND: @ TOR |vs WAS | vs MIN | @ MIN

NY @ MIN | @ TOR | vs ATL | vs ATL

WAS: @ CHI | @ IND | vs CON | vs CHI

DAL: vs LA | vs PHO | @ PHO | @ SEA

A win would have been great, but clearly the team was tired and ran out of steam.

That should leave the bitter taste of a loss in their mouth during the FIBA World Cup break, and help motivate them to lock in during practice as they prepare for the final four games and the postseason push. Not that they wouldn’t have worked hard anyway, but sometimes feeling like you have something more to prove pushes you to another level. They can use this for motivation. And they now get the benefit of a second mini camp while other teams see their stars leave the fold for a few weeks and will then have a short window to regain their rhythm.

All of this helps our chances for a first round upset. And then maybe they can stretch out a deep run in the second round to make it a real series.

This is great article from the ix sports

They’re layers to this I’m sad we lost but as a Mystic fans we have other options we win.

when we were the 7 seed I was actually pumped, I think we could take GSV in a 3 series and have a chance. it would also just be great basketball to watch. we’ve beat them before and we had to fight for it but we did it. I could see a hard fought win for us but they would need to lock tf in for all 40 mins of all 3 games. we lose our wind in the last quarter and a half sometimes. I’m thinking we win the last 2 of 3 games.

rn it’s looking like we’re matched up with the Aces, I don’t know if our perimeter defense is enough to combat jackie and chelsea and Mai from the 3 (and the occasional jewell loyd 3). kira + kiki + betts will do their best against the M’VP and I think they’ll hold her to less pts. I could see us winning one game for sure, but idk about two. I think if we win the first game, the young ho momentum will carry us to win #2 in game 3.

if we end up playing Indiana first round we’re eating that up, but god I don’t wanna deal with that fan base and I don’t watch any of their games, so I’d miss the whole round. we’d sweep the series

now if we play the dream……. idk about that one 😭 our offense would have to be fully solid but defensively we’re strong against them. same w GSV, it’ll be great basketball regardless of who wins. I just don’t know if we have the momentum to carry us to two wins against them. one win for sure. I’m crossing fingers and toes for the young hos.

what do y’all think?

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Georgia Amoore had her best WNBA game yet!! Career-high 25 points!

I think we have a shot at home court advantage now.

We can't go above Lynx(mathematically impossible), Valkyries(we'd have to win every remaining game and they'd have to lose every remaining game) or Aces (they're not losing 3 of their last 5 games, they have the easiest schedule remaining), but we definitely have a shot at getting that 4 seed.

If we win out (not entirely impossible), we're 5th at worst(Liberty and Wings would have less wins than us, Fever would at best have the same record but we'd have the h2h advantage), and we'd need Dream to lose 2 of their last 6, which isn't that unlikely, considering the fact that they play Lynx, Liberty x2(they lost the first game of that match up, and convincingly so), Fire (split the series so far with them and Fire always play hard), Sky(they haven't been bad in recent games) and Sun. I think they do get two losses there.

If we get one non-Fever game loss then things change slightly but it's still possible. Fever would have to lose one other game and they play Lynx twice, Dream would have to lose 3 and not 2 (also not impossible) and Liberty would have to lose one game (they have a tough schedule remaining and their players could be fatigued from the FIBA World Cup).

It's a really tough task, but it's not impossible! ​

How do you explain the last Mercury game?

I have been naysaying both Amoore (for being the worst starting PG in the league) and Johnson (for leaving her in) all season, but the response I’ve seen a lot is “she’s doing what they’re asking her to do.” The implication for me now is: she can score like that but they asked her not to.

So the possibilities are:

1. this is a fluke, they’re both still mid
   
2. Amoore is good, Johnson is mid. Amoore can do much more than she’s been doing, Johnson either won’t let her or can’t help her.
   
3. Amoore is mid, Johnson is good. He schemed playmaking duties between Citron and BLH and Amoore just got left open by the Merc because they weren’t worried about her. She can’t keep this up and her role will diminish.
   
4. They’re both good. I don’t know if anyone knows it, and I don’t know if anyone can see it, but it’s true.

My money is still on #1, but I’d love to be wrong and we see Amoore light it up a few more times. #2 is possible. I don’t see how #3 or #4 could be true, but please enlighten me.

A brutal 24-hour turnaround, but hopefully the adrenaline is still there.

Like, blowing out your leg is NOT easy to come back from, but considering how it’s the internet she was clearly a bust. (Sarcasm)

Man…what a little bit of patience can do. (“What I say!”) Just great watching her last night do floor general, push tempo and do it well. I don’t know if she’s our starting distributor (yes, that Chicago swap is looming) but yeeesh, if you’re not a fan of this young woman’s mettle…

That felt like a great step. Rooting for her, it only elevates everyone!