Keys to the Palace: Tayler Hill and Tianna Hawkins shine in mid-June

The Mystics lost two of their last three games. First, they lost to the Wings on June 18, followed by a blowout loss to the Lynx on June 23. They did beat the Sky on June 25 to close out last weekend. Let’s hand out some keys for the last two weeks, because we didn’t hand out keys last week. It was because there was only one game:

Keys to the Palace

Tayler Hill

Hill averaged 19.7 points in the last three games on 42.6 percent shooting. In addition, she was perfect from the free throw line. I’m very happy to see Hill playing the way she is on the court. Hopefully. that turns into an All-Star appearance this July.

Tianna Hawkins

Hawkins averaged 10.7 points a game in the last two weeks while making 63.6 percent of her shots overall and 50 percent of her long range shots. Of all the players on the Mystics, she is perhaps the most improved player this season.

Guest Passes

Elena Delle Donne

EDD failed to score over 20 points in each of the Mystics’ last three games. That said, she dished four assists in the Wings game, and four more assists last Sunday against the Sky. If there’s a part of her game that can improve while Emma Meesseman is out, assists are it.

Kristi Toliver

If I was just handing out Keys for last week, Toliver has my vote. She made seven threes in each of the Mystics last two games and averaged 15 points a game. Unfortunately, her lackluster performance against the Wings on June 18 put her in Guest Pass territory. Still, she’s played well lately.

Tierra Ruffin-Pratt

TRP’s highlight was a 15 point performance against the Wings back on June 19, and she also played well against the Sky last Sunday. She didn’t have a good showing against the Lynx ... but to be fair, few players did.

Natasha Cloud

Cloud started off with dark cloudy skies for the Wings game on June 18. The Sky got sunnier with a few bright clouds last Sunday.

Sorry for the puns. :P

That said, I liked Cloud’s 12 point, 6 assist performance last Sunday.

Lockouts

Ivory Latta

Latta’s best shooting performance was against the Lynx, so I feel bad that I’m locking her out. That said, her shot was just off against the Wings and Sky. Latta’s most effective shot is the three pointer, and she’s scary when her shot’s going. But when it’s not, then she’s not doing much for Washington on the floor.

Krystal Thomas

A center can’t shoot a combined 2 of 10 from the field in the last two games and expect to get a pass. I do like that Thomas is playing hard out there and is doing more than we thought. But again, 2 of 10 shooting in the last two games isn’t gonna cut it.

Too Little Time for an Evaluation

Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, Jennie Simms and Asia Taylor did not play enough or an evaluation.

Emma Meesseman wasn’t around. But she deserves a Key for her EuroBasket performance, which we will get into in other posts.