The Washington Mystics set an WNBA-record with 18 three pointers in a 107-68 rout of the Indiana Fever Sunday. Washington improved to a league-best 20-7 with their sixth straight win.
The Mystics made 18-of-39 of their threes. Aerial Powers and Ariel Atkins each made four treys. Elena Delle Donne made 3-of-4 three pointers and finished with a game-high 25 points, adding a team-high nine rebounds.
Washington scored a season-high 36 points in the third quarter. The WNBA’s best free-throwing shooting team, Washington made all 15 of their free throw attempts in the win.
The Mystics never trailed in the game, and used an 18-0 run in the first quarter to jump out to a 20-2 lead.
Clinched Playoff Berth
Sunday’s rout comes on the heels of their playoff-clinching win Friday at the Minnesota Lynx. Washington, who made it to the WNBA Finals a year ago, have a one-game lead over the Connecticut Sun for the No. 1 seed in the WNBA playoffs.
Bolstering the league’s best offense, averaging 88.6 points per game, the Mystics are also the WNBA’s best-shooting team making 46.9 percent of their field goals, and they are second in three-point shooting at 36.6 percent.
The Real MVP
Delle Donne appears to be the front-runner for the WNBA MVP this season, averaging 19 points, 8.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.2 blocks per game. Meanwhile, she is shooting 51.5 percent from the field, including 41.9 percent from three. Her 96.3 percent free-throw shooting leads the league.
The Mystics are 20-4 when Delle Donne plays this season, and 0-3 when she has not.
Natasha Cloud Becomes Mystics All-Time Assists Leader
Natasha Cloud made a bit of history in Friday’s win at Minnesota. The fifth-year point guard became the Mystics’ all-time leader in assists. Cloud surpassed Alana Beard, who had 563 dimes in her time with Washington. Following Sunday’s game, Cloud has 578 assists thus far with many more in store.
