EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsThe Indiana Fever kept their season alive. Can the Washington Mystics and Dallas Wings do the same Wednesday?Both teams missed the WNBA playoffs the past two years but must take advantage of their home courts and win Wednesday to avoid being eliminated in the first round.The No. 5 seed Mystics host the No. 4 Atlanta Dream (7 p.m. ET, ESPN) and the No. 7 Wings host the No. 2 Golden State Valkyries (9 p.m. ET, ESPN) in Game 2 of their best-of-three series.In Sunday's playoff openers, the Mystics fell 92-77 at Atlanta, and the Wings lost 104-80 at Golden State. Washington led by five at halftime, but the game turned around with the Dream's huge 29-12 third-quarter surge. The Wings, prepared for the Valkyries' league-best defense, couldn't keep pace with Golden State's 18 3-pointers and franchise-record scoring total.Sunday was the first playoff experience for five 2025 first-round draft picks: Dallas' Paige Bueckers and Aziaha James, and Washington's Sonia Citron, Kiki Iriafen and Georgia Amoore."This is the stage we want to be on," Iriafen said after Sunday's loss. "This is our first time being here. Not that that's an excuse, but now we know what it looks like. We have a taste for it. We'll be better prepared for our game on Wednesday."The Mystics and Wings go in with the mission of beating the higher seed. Washington defeated Atlanta twice in the regular season, but Dallas lost three times to Golden State. Here's a look at what could determine Wednesday's results.What must the Mystics do differently?Voepel: First, cut down on turnovers, which really hurt them in Game 1. The Mystics had 22 turnovers to seven for Atlanta, with the Dream scoring 27 points off the giveaways to only four for the Mystics."They're a very physical team; they have good defenders," Citron said of the turnover issue. "We can't let them speed us up. It's kind of on us."Overall, both teams played aggressive defense, but the Dream had the better of that, especially when they took control in the third quarter."I think we just let them get comfortable offensively," Citron said. "In the first half, we did a good job of just making everything hard for them. In that third quarter, we just let some of our discipline slip. Once they get going, it's really hard to stop them."Washington did, though, in two out of three games in the regular season, beating the Dream 81-76 on July 2 and 79-74 on Aug. 7. Both games were at Washington, as opposed to the Mystics' 109-77 loss at Atlanta on June 6.Coach Sydney Johnson said overall, the Mystics -- most of whom were appearing in their first playoff game -- performed pretty well. But that's not enough in the postseason."There's an elevated level of play in the playoffs," Johnson said. "I was really proud of how we met that. But we probably met it instead of initiating it in the third and fourth quarters."What must the Wings do differently?Andrews: The Wings need more from everyone not named Paige Bueckers. She had a historic night in her playoff debut, becoming the first player in WNBA history to shoot at least 90% from the field and score 20 points or more in her first postseason game. But no one else stepped up to help her. At halftime, Dallas' bench was scoreless and none of the other three players who had scored for the Wings had over six points. Yes, by the end of the game the Wings' second unit was outscored by only four points, but by then the game was decided."The score should not dictate your effort," Wings coach Jose Fernandez said after the game.Jessica Shepard, a candidate for Most Improved Player, was held scoreless. The Valkyries have done a good job at keeping Shepard quiet in some of their previous matchups this season, but she still found other ways to influence the game. In Game 1, she lacked her usual impact on the boards and as a facilitator, finishing with three rebounds, three assists and three turnovers. Arike Ogunbowale and Awak Kuier will also need to produce more.Bueckers said the Wings' lackluster offensive night also impacted their defense, something they need to change if they want to extend the series."We've been a team that has a bad habit of letting made or missed shots dictate how hard we play on the defensive end," Bueckers said. "This is the playoffs, so it's really unacceptable."What's at stake for the Dream and the Valkyries?Voepel: Atlanta last made the semifinals in 2018, then missed the playoffs the next four seasons. The Dream returned to the playoffs in 2023 behind Rhyne Howard, the 2022 No. 1 pick, and Allisha Gray, who came to Atlanta that year in a trade from Dallas. They've been the Dream's scoring leaders in all four of their seasons together in Atlanta. But first-round playoff exits the past three years have been a disappointment.The Dream were swept by Dallas in 2023 and by New York in 2024. Last season against Indiana, the Dream won their first-round opener at home, then lost the next two games and the series."The next game is going to be hard," Howard said of Wednesday's matchup in Washington. "They're going to want to come out with more aggression. What we did in the first half, we can't have happen again."The Valkyries, meanwhile, are in only their second season of existence, but they are ahead of schedule for the average expansion team in pro sports. Last season, as the No. 8 seed, they were swept by Minnesota in the first round.After shutting down the Wings' inside game Sunday, the Valkyries know that will probably be a point of emphasis for Dallas to greatly improve on in Game 2. And as good as Golden State's offense looked in Game 1, the Valkyries generally do not want high-scoring battles. If they win and close out the series, it might be a very different game than the opener.Andrews: Before the Valkyries even left the court in Game 1, coach Natalie Nakase's staff was already talking strategy for Game 2. They know the Wings will make adjustments, and they also can't necessarily expect them to have as historic of a shooting night in Game 2. But the Valkyries feel extremely confident.Golden State's defensive mindset has been one of the most unshakable identities in the WNBA this season, and that's not changing now. Even after Bueckers scored 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting, the Valkyries were pleased with their approach."She's an excellent player, one of the best in the league," Christyn Williams said. "As long as I can make [her shots] hard, where she has to really work for them, she will get tired. That's the goal. She's going to get them, but how can I wear her down?"Golden State remains a young and relatively inexperienced team in the greater landscape of the league, but Veronica Burton said the Valkyries do not feel like underdogs. They were unhappy that last year's playoff appearance (a first-round sweep) "ended as quickly as it started," Burton said, so they don't want to give Dallas the opportunity to take away this series.
