The Washington Mystics (5-3) defeated the Los Angeles Sparks, 81-52 on Tuesday night at the Staples Center. Ariel Atkins led Washington with 22 points. Shatori Walker-Kimbrough added 17 more points off the bench, which was a career-high.
LaToya Sanders stole the ball a career-high SIX times despite not scoring. And Elena Delle Donne grabbed a season-high 15 rebounds despite another off-night shooting the basketball to get Washington their first road victory of the 2019 season.
For the Sparks, Nneka Ogwumike and Sydney Wiese scored 12 points each.
Washington had a defensive clinic in this game. They never trailed and they outscored L.A. every quarter. This was a beatdown.
Furthermore, Candace Parker made her season debut, where she shot 1-of-9 from the field and committed 6 turnovers. Speaking about turnovers, the Sparks committed 26 of them which turned into 38 Washington points!
Meanwhile, the Mystics did commit 17 turnovers, but the Sparks shot just 28.8 percent from the field all night. They only scored 7 points off those turnovers. If the Mystics took a little better care of the basketball, Washington may have won this game by 40 points!
All I have left to add are some of these sick highlights by the Mystics earlier tonight!
THE SLIM ASSASSIN SINKS A 3️⃣ AND A CAREER HIGH 17 POINTS pic.twitter.com/Ci9lKZ2y4a
— Washington Mystics (@WashMystics) June 19, 2019
CAREER HIGH 6 STEALS FROM LATOYA SANDERS pic.twitter.com/Q7LII439ml
— Washington Mystics (@WashMystics) June 19, 2019
Aerial Powers > the entire Sparks team pic.twitter.com/SWjgpcJZUS
— Washington Mystics (@WashMystics) June 19, 2019
West Coast ARI3L pic.twitter.com/NhzZ0cbkUZ
— Washington Mystics (@WashMystics) June 19, 2019
In case you weren’t totally aware during the game, Seattle Storm forward Breanna Stewart was there to watch the game.
Breanna Stewart hanging around postgame, taking lots of pics. Lots of lover for her at Staples.
— Brady Klopfer (@BradyKlopferNBA) June 19, 2019
Game respect game ✊ @De11eDonne catching up with @breannastewart after her game in L.A. tonight! #WNBA pic.twitter.com/aCAKjsNnjI
— WNBA (@WNBA) June 19, 2019
The Mystics will head to Las Vegas this Thursday, June 20 to play the Aces. Yes, it’s the same day as the NBA Draft and we won’t forget about it for obvious reasons. But we’ll still be watching because the game starts at 10 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network or Monumental Sports Network here in the DMV.