It’s all frustrating, Atkins admitted, but she knows life could be much worse. The difficulties continued Sunday afternoon, when the Mystics had their best offensive game of the season but still lost to the New York Liberty, 93-88, at Barclays Center to fall to 0-12, extending the worst start in franchise history.
“This is new territory that I never plan to be in again,” Atkins said. “You can’t always ask for glitter and unicorns and rainbows. Sometimes you’ve got to walk through the storm.”
Atkins said she was told she did not make the U.S. roster despite being on the gold medal-winning Tokyo team in 2021 and participating in every camp since. The 27-year-old said she was not mad, and she knows a talented group of guards made the team. Atkins said she was not given an explanation of what she would have needed to do to make the team, and she didn’t ask for one.
“It definitely sucks,” she said. “You work really hard to try to do something. And not to be able to get it, [after] you kind of give your all to it … it just didn’t work out this time. Obviously I wanted to make the team. I had a hard time. It sucks. It just sucks.”
The entire team grappled with that sort of disappointment Sunday as the Mystics again came up short in a winnable game. Their 88 points were a season high, and they trailed by one with 19.7 seconds left. Coach Eric Thibault had his team pressing in the backcourt, and the Mystics trapped the Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu in the corner before she found Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, who chucked the ball to a wide-open Jonquel Jones for a layup.
Replays showed the ball was still in Laney-Hamilton’s hands with 11.7 seconds left on the clock. Thibault was upset that the officials did not call an eight-second violation, and he said he was not given an explanation.
“A correctly called eight-second violation away from having the ball with a chance to win,” Thibault said. “Officials missed it. … It can happen. It’s a crazy situation, but it was an eight-second violation.”
The Mystics’ Jade Melbourne, who had a career-high 21 points off the bench, found space for what would have been a tying three-pointer with 4.6 seconds remaining. But her shot was just short, and Laney-Hamilton iced New York’s win at the free throw line. The Mystics never trailed by more than seven in a game that featured 17 lead changes and 11 ties.
The bench was huge for Washington: Myisha Hines-Allen had her best game of the year with 20 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. She hadn’t scored 20 points in a regular season game since August 2022.
“I feel like I could have made some more layups,” she said. “Just feeling the confidence from my teammates that they give me. Just keep playing, keep going hard. This is how I can play and how I should be playing.”
Added Melbourne: “We spoke about how New York could potentially have some gaps in the defense. We pride ourselves, our bench, on coming in and bringing a spark and creating energy.”
The Mystics remain the WNBA’s only winless team. Their past three losses came by a combined 15 points. They fell to 0-4 in Commissioner’s Cup play; the Liberty (11-2 overall) improved to 5-0.
Atkins was the lone starter in double figures with 13 points as the Mystics shot a season-high 49.3 percent, including 42.9 percent from behind the arc. The Liberty’s 13 offensive rebounds and 20 second-chance points were a huge problem for the visitors.
Jones scored a season-high 29 points for New York and added eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks. Ionescu finished with 19 points, eight assists and six rebounds; Breanna Stewart was held to 14 points and seven rebounds.
“I was exceptionally proud of our team, the way we played,” Thibault said. “It’s probably our best offensive game, start to finish, all year. That was a team that gave us trouble a week ago. We’re the same personnel. We were smarter. We got contributions from a lot of people; the bench group really stepped up and played well. Frustrating not to get over the hump, but I’m proud of the group. We fought all the way through to the end.”