Mystics at Lynx final score: Washington blown out without Mike Thibault, 93-76

The Mystics were blown out Friday night by the Lynx, 93-76 while Mike and Eric Thibault were out due to bereavement leave. In the loss, Tayler Hill scored 21 points to lead all Mystics players, while Elena Delle Donne and Kristi Toliver added 17 and 14 points respectively.

For the Lynx, Maya Moore had a near triple double with 22 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 assists, while Sylvia Fowles had a spectacular performance with 21 points on 8 of 10 shooting and 15 rebounds.

Here are the main things that decided this game:

• Maya Moore had a bounce back game after an otherwise down season so far - Moore hasn’t played at her usual level this season. But she finished the first half with a double double. She wasn’t far from a triple double, which is very rare in the WNBA due to the 40 minute game. She was the main catalyst tonight as Minnesota bounced back from a loss earlier this week.
• Sylvia Fowles was a BEAST - Fowles averages a near double double with 20.9 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. Like she did on June 9, Fowles, dominated the paint, and the Mystics could do nothing to keep her under control.
• TRP and Krystal Thomas provided virtually no help as scorers - I’ll start with Krystal Thomas first. She made strides to be a better than expected starting center while Emma Meesseman is out in Europe. But she has to find a way to take more than three shots and grab more than four rebounds in the game. And as for TRP, a 1 of 7 shooting performance isn’t something we expect out of a starter. In a vacuum, anyone can have a bad shooting performance. But TRP can’t combine that with a 7 turnover and 5 personal foul game. Yikes!
• The Mystics had only one assistant coach on the floor - Marianne Stanley is a great coach on her own, but her assistants were the remaining basketball operations staff members. Yes, this game offered them an opportunity to coach for a game. Or maybe two. But when folks are thrust into different roles with relatively short notice, you can’t expect them to be a well oiled machine.

At the end of the day, this Mystics-Lynx game is another unevenly matched contest because Washington didn’t have their head coach, one of their assistants, and one of their key post players. We shouldn’t make excuses of course, but we also want to see an evenly matched Mystics and Lynx game where we can truly see where Washington stands against one of the WNBA’s current dynasties.