News Wizards Team Notes

[Washington Wizards]

Recap: Mystics finish on a 12-2 run to beat the Aces, 70-68

Brittney Sykes led the Washington Mystics to their 10th win of the season. | Rafael Suanes-Imagn Images

The Mystics are getting into strong midseason form.

It was a defensive battle, and the Mystics trailed most of the way, but they closed on a 12-2 run to beat the Las Vegas Aces, 70-68.

Sonia Citron and Shakira Austin were the offensive engines in the fourth quarter. Citron overcame a rough outing to score six points in the final 10 minutes. She finished the game with nine points on 2-10 shooting.

Austin scored six of her 16 points and grabbed six of her eight rebounds in just seven minutes of action in the final period.

Britney Sykes pumped in 18 points — including the pair of free throws with 4.1 seconds to play that capped Washington’s comeback.

Kiki Iriafen had 12 points on 4-4 shooting from the floor, as well as eight rebounds.

For the Aces, Jewell Loyd led with 20 points. Chelsea Gray was arguably Las Vegas’ top performer with 13 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal and 3 blocks. Dana Evans chipped in 11 off the bench in a losing cause.

When I mentioned a defensive battle earlier, I meant it. Washington’s offensive rating (points scored per possession x 100) was 88. Seattle’s was 86. League average this season: 104.3. The teams shot a combined 5-36 (13.8%) from three-point range.

With the win, Washington moves to seventh place.

Next up for the Mystics — a matchup with Skylar Diggins, Gabby Williams, and Nneka Ogwumike of the Seattle Storm. (Yes, I almost typed Supersonics.)

It’ll also be a chance to catch up with former Mystics forward Alysha Clark, who signed with Seattle in the offseason. Clark has played 10 of her 13 professional seasons with the Storm.

Source: https://www.bulletsforever.com/2025...nish-on-a-12-2-run-to-beat-the-las-vegas-aces

 

[Washington Wizards]

SB Nation Reacts: Analyzing what other NBA teams’ fanbases are thinking this summer

Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

This week, we’ll take a look at whether you agree or disagree with some team survey results.

In this week’s SB Nation Reacts post, I didn’t have a Washington Wizards specfic survey. That was because I am on vacation the next couple of weeks. And that’s why I haven’t been writing as NBA Summer League is going on.

I looked at some team surveys from other sites and I just wanted to see what your take is on from a couple sites.

Here are some of the SB Nation Reacts surveys that other teams had. We’ll over them later this morning. pic.twitter.com/Q2BTrL0c35

— Bullets Forever (@BulletsForever) July 12, 2025​

At Mavs Moneyball, our Dallas Mavericks site, 84 percent of fans believe their team will make the playoffs this season. Now that Cooper Flagg is on the team along with Anthony Davis and a recent signing in D’Anelo Russell, that’s reason for their fans to be optimistic. In the 2024-25 season, the Mavericks made the postseason but were eliminated in the play-in tournament.

I was intrigued by two questions from Fear the Sword, our Cleveland Cavaliers site. One question asked which Eastern Conference team worries their fans the most. The New York Knicks had 54 percent of the vote and that wasn’t unsurprising. The Orlando Magic (27 percent) and Atlanta Hawks (9 percent) were after that. I get that the Indiana Pacers lost Tyrese Halliburton for 2025-26, but I would also think that they wouldn’t be … a doormat either.

The Cavaliers, who were the top team in the Eastern Conference regular season standings in 2024-25, also have an uneasy fanbase given that they lost in the second round of the NBA Playoffs. A significant portion, 40 percent, also believe that the team needs to make one more big trade to feel confident about another deep playoff run.

I’ll get up an SB Nation Reacts survey next week for us specifically. But in the meantime, feel free to chat about some of these results in the comments below.

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Source: https://www.bulletsforever.com/2025...nalyzing-dallas-mavericks-cleveland-mavericks