The Washington Mystics are 6-17 and have picked up all six wins in the last month and a day. The Next’s Washington Mystics beat writer Jenn Hatfield joins host Natalie Heavren to discuss what’s changed for the team in the last month. The pair also chats about how injuries are still impacting Washington, what Stefanie Dolson has brought this season and what’s ahead for the Mystics. Hatfield also dives into who is heading to Paris for the Olympics.
The Mystics have struggled to remain healthy all season. Hatfield shares her perspective on the opportunity that the upcoming Olympic break provides for the team to heal and improve.
“The big thing is they’ve got to get healthy. And the Mystics have kind of said that some of their injured players should hopefully be ready to go early in that Olympic break,” Hatfield said on the podcast. “And what that’ll allow them to do is work on themselves — the team can work on themselves, at least with the players who are not at the Olympics … I think that’s especially important for this year’s team, because it’s such a young team.”
Later, Hatfield shares some of the players on the Mystics roster who have stepped up and provided good minutes for the team.
“Shatori Walker-Kimbrough has been great in her last several games — really stepped up her scoring, has been notably aggressive, getting to the rim and shooting threes. Myisha Hines-Allen has moved from a reserve role into the starting lineup and has kind of flourished in more minutes. Fun fact: [Hines-Allen] and Stef Dolson are two of six WNBA players right now who are shooting both 50% from the field and 40% from three on a certain number of minimum attempts,” Hatfield said.
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