Mystics vs. Fever final score: Washington blown out in preseason debut, 89-69

The Washington Mystics laid a goose egg on Friday afternoon against the Indiana Fever, 89-69. Rookie Kahleah Copper led Washington with 13 points on 3 of 5 shooting, while rookie guard Zoi Dimitrakou added 10 points. Meanwhile, the Fever were led by Tamika Catchings who scored 16 points in just 12 minutes.

Even though the Mystics did not play three of their key guards: Bria Hartley, Tayler Hill, or Ivory Latta, this was still a poor performance by the home team all things considered. Let's get to the key takeaways in this game:

SO MANY TURNOVERS!!!!!

Washington committed 24 of them today. Indiana scored 22 points off of them. Meanwhile, the Fever only committed 14 turnovers, which turned into seven Mystics points. That's most of the deficit right there.

Of those 24 turnovers, Lia Galdeira, the Mystics' second round pick this season committed nine of them in 20 minutes of action. On top of that, she only scored six points on 1-of-5 shooting, and shot 4 of 7 from the free throw line. To say the least, that was an offensive offensive performance. Safe to say that she may not play too much on Sunday against the Lynx.

I can forgive the Mystics' 36.8 percent shooting, and I'll even give them a pass for shooting 68.6 percent from the free throw line. But if there's one thing I cannot forgive in basketball, it is excessive turnovers -- especially when a player commits NINE of them.

This isn't the Mystics team you'll see on May 14

I'll stress this again before some of you write the Styx off as the WNBA's 12th place team. The team that played today is NOT the team you'll see in the regular season.

Again, multiple key players did not play, whether it was the aforementioned Hill, Hartley, and Latta or post players like Emma Meesseman and LaToya Sanders who are still in Europe. Most of the players who played extended minutes are playing for roster spots. Mike Thibault played them to let them show what they can do. The players who played well in this game will have a better shot to make the final roster than those who didn't. It's as simple as that.

Next Game

The Mystics will travel to Rochester, Minnesota to play the Lynx at 5 p.m. ET on Mother's Day Sunday.