{"id":1939,"date":"2022-06-05T19:59:17","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T19:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/?p=1939"},"modified":"2022-06-19T23:04:22","modified_gmt":"2022-06-19T23:04:22","slug":"mystics-still-searching-for-identity-amid-favorable-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/05\/mystics-still-searching-for-identity-amid-favorable-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystics still searching for identity amid favorable start"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Washington Mystics are off to a 7-4 start but despite the record, the team acknowledges that they are still searching for their identity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Mystics\u2019 four losses, the main culprit has shown up as a disjointed offense. This issue also reared its ugly head again on Friday night when the team let the games slip away to the 2-7 <a href=\"https:\/\/liberty.wnba.com\/news\/liberty-earn-hard-fought-road-win-against-mystics-74-70\/\">New York Liberty<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIts been a little tough for us. I think what\u2019s been a bit of a struggle is different nights, different people are in,\u201d Elene Delle Donne said. \u201cDifferent coaches are coaching. Its been hard to get a flow and hard to know what we need to get in tough moments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although the Mystics understand who they are as an organization, Delle Donne admitted that they are still searching for their identity on the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Elena Delle Donne touches on the Mystics still searching for their identity: \u201cAll great teams have things they have to figure out.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WNBATwitter?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#WNBATwitter<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Mystics25?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Mystics25<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/rfyM4deLyy\">pic.twitter.com\/rfyM4deLyy<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Double Take Sports (@dbltakesports) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dbltakesports\/status\/1532903480825880577?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 4, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s not entirely surprising with new pieces making their way into the lineup over the past eleven games. Alysha Clark and Delle Donne continue to be limited from game to game due to injury recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elizabeth Williams and Kennedy Burke are also working their way into the rotation. While Shakira Austin has been an asset, it seems that the coaching staff hasn\u2019t found a consistent place for her in the lineup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Mystics may be shaky offensively but they are off to a favorable start to the season and sit at number three in the Eastern Conference. While this is encouraging, Ariel Atkins believes it\u2019s not about the record. It is about the Mystics playing up to the standard they have for themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Although the Mystics are still figuring out a flow, they are 7-4, but for Ariel Atkins the focus is on playing up to the standard they\u2019re capable of: \u201cIt\u2019s time for us to put our foot down and be like this is who we are and this is what we\u2019re able to hang our hat on every night.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/w0mwSHpjqO\">pic.twitter.com\/w0mwSHpjqO<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Double Take Sports (@dbltakesports) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dbltakesports\/status\/1533512274148790276?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 5, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The team may not be meeting their standard yet but there were still plenty of positives in their 74-70 loss. Natasha Cloud scored a team-high 17 points (6-16 FG) and dished out a game-high eight assists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ariel Atkins tallied 15 points (5-10 FG, 2-4 3PT) and has now scored in double figures in six consecutive games and in team-best 10 total games this season. Elena Delle Donne netted 15 points on 7-13 shooting, adding a team-high eight rebounds to her stat line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Mystics hope to turn around on Sunday when they go on the road for a <a href=\"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/23\/candace-parker-makes-history-as-mystics-fall-to-sky\/\">matchup with the Chicago Sky<\/a>. The last time these two teams faced each other, the Mystics fell &nbsp;82-73.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now is as good of time as any for the Mystics to get back on track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Washington Mystics are off to a 7-4 start but despite the record, the team acknowledges that they are still searching for their identity. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mystics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Mystics-identity2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1939"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1944,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1939\/revisions\/1944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}