The Washington Mystics’ season ended Sunday after they fell to the Seattle Storm in the first round of the WNBA playoffs.

No. 5 seed Seattle pulled off back-to-back wins in closely contested matchups, sweeping the No. 4 seed Mystics. While the early exit brought an abrupt end to a promising season, the Mystics maintain a solid core heading into 2023.

Washington Mystics: Year in Review

What went right?

Despite the very short playoff run, the Mystics easily could put a positive spin on their season after flipping their 12-20 record from 2021 into a 22-14 record in 2022. Washington ended the regular season as one of five teams with a winning record.

Former WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne returned to the court consistently for the Mystics after nearly two years away due to injury. The 32-year-old started in 25 games during the 2022 campaign, averaging 17.2 points, 6.3, 2.3 assists and 1.1 blocks per game.

As a team, the Mystics finished third in 3-point percentage at 45.7 behind stellar shooting from Natasha Cloud. Ariel Atkins was critical as well, logging 14.6 points and 3.3 rebounds per game, while Shakira Austin made a case for Rookie of the Year.

The team also finished the season with the best defensive rating in the league at 96.0.

“We fought,” Atkins said. “I still think we got better. I’m proud of the trajectory of our team. I’m very proud of the foundation we have here in the Mystics organization.”

What went wrong?

While the Mystics boasted the best defense in the league, stops didn’t always transition to offensive production. The team finished with the lowest pace of play in the WNBA at 78.38 possessions per game.

Washington lacked the firepower of teams like Las Vegas, Chicago and Seattle, putting the squad at a significant disadvantage, especially during the postseason.

Though many things clicked for Washington this season, offensive ingenuity remained a consistent challenge.

What comes next?

Cloud warned the team against using its past successes as a crutch, saying after the playoff loss, “I’m tired of talking about past years.” Still, as Atkins noted, the Mystics can point to the 2022 campaign as a solid foundation to build upon.

Cloud, Atkins and Delle Donne will return all with one year remaining on their contracts, and they will be hungry to make a title run with the seasoned squad. Austin also will be back after a sensational rookie season.

Washington may look to add some offensive firepower to the mix, and the team should have plenty of options with a lottery pick and money left over in the salary cap.

The 2025 All-Star Game draft pool is complete, as the WNBA dropped the 12-player reserves list on Sunday to round out the group of 22 league standouts who'll battle in Indianapolis later this month.

Washington rookie phenoms Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen received their first career nods, making the Mystics the first WNBA team in 26 years to see two league debutants become All-Stars.

The Washington duo aren't the only first-timers to make Sunday's All-Star cut, with both Seattle's Gabby Williams and Golden State's Kayla Thornton earning spots on the 2025 reserves list.

All-Star captains Napheesa Collier (Minnesota) and Caitlin Clark (Indiana) will also now have access to Skylar Diggins (Seattle), Rhyne Howard (Atlanta), Kelsey Mitchell (Indiana), Kelsey Plum (LA), Angel Reese (Chicago), Alyssa Thomas (Phoenix), Courtney Williams (Minnesota), and Jackie Young (Las Vegas) alongside the previously announced starters to build out their teams.

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Coaches catch heat for All-Star decisions

While a mix of fans, players, and media members vote to determine the All-Star Game starters, WNBA head coaches choose the reserves — and some players weren't exactly happy with this year's outcome.

"Whatever about me…. But taking 2, and NOT including the best player from a below 500 team is crazy," LA forward Dearica Hamby posted on Sunday, blasting the coaches for not including Mystics guard Brittney Sykes.

"I don't know why only [Collier] and [Williams] are All-Stars when you have the best team in the league by a few games," Minnesota head coach Cheryl Reeve, whose Lynx currently lead the WNBA by a large 4.5-game margin, told reporters. "There are teams that are below us in the standings by a lot that have three All-Stars."

Reeve is referencing No. 4 Seattle and No. 7 Indiana, who lead the charge with a trio of All-Stars each.

While six teams, including Minnesota, each boast two players in the pool, four — Chicago, Dallas, Golden State, and LA — will be repped by one player at the 2025 All-Star Game.

With just two wins on the season, the last-place Connecticut Sun is the only WNBA team to not field an All-Star this year.

How to watch the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game draft

Clark and Collier will draft their 2025 WNBA All-Star Game teams during Tuesday's broadcast of WNBA Countdown, airing at 7 PM ET on ESPN.

Another round of upsets tore through the WNBA over the long weekend, with the youth-powered No. 11 Dallas Wings grabbing headlines behind Thursday's 98-89 win over the No. 2 Phoenix Mercury.

With injured Dallas stars DiJonai Carrington and Arike Ogunbowale forced to watch from the sidelines, four Wings rookies started Thursday's matchup — the most first-year starters on any WNBA team since 2000.

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The team's young core stepped up and shined, with Aziaha James, Paige Bueckers, and JJ Quinerly combining for 68 points to outlast Phoenix forward Kahleah Copper's game-leading 33-point performance.

"The rookies were fantastic," Copper said afterwards. "They came out with no fear, as you should. They played free, they played aggressive, and they showed what they could do."

While the Mercury's two-game losing streak has yet to impact their spot in the current WNBA standings, it did widen the gap at the top of the table.

Phoenix's stumble gave No. 1 Minnesota a 4.5-game lead over the field, with the Lynx ending the weekend on a 3-0 run to avenge last Tuesday's WNBA Commissioner's Cup loss.

Also climbing the ranks was the No. 4 Seattle Storm, who downed both No. 5 Atlanta and No. 3 New York to pull within a half-game of the skidding Liberty.

As for the 2025 Commissioner's Cup champs, No. 7 Indiana opened their long weekend slate with a massive 81-54 Thursday win against No. 8 Las Vegas — the Fever's first victory over the Aces since 2019 — before narrowly falling 89-87 to the No. 10 LA Sparks on Saturday.

How to watch the Dallas Wings vs. Phoenix Mercury WNBA game

After falling on the road to Dallas last Thursday, Phoenix will hope Monday's home-court advantage will snap their two-loss streak as they try their luck against Wings again at 10 PM ET.

The rematch will air live on WNBA League Pass.

Basketball's biggest stars aren't holding back on criticizing the league's CBA proposal after the WNBA Player's Association (WNBPA) rejected last week's opening offer.

With the parties set to engage in CBA negotiations during next week's 2025 WNBA All-Star Weekend, Phoenix Mercury forward and WNBPA representative Satou Sabally called the league's initial offer "a slap in the face."

Also weighing in was WNBPA vice president and New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart, who echoed Sabally's sentiment by confirming her frustration with the league to reporters.

"Anytime you go back-and-forth, you're not expecting to hear that 'yes' on the first [proposal], but you're expecting to have a conversation," she added. "They kind of just ignored everything we said."

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The WNBA's current CBA expires at the end of this season, with players upping their demands in light of the league's recent popularity boom and planned expansion.

"It's been made clear that [there's] this perception that the players don't understand the business," WNBPA president and Seattle forward Nneka Ogwumike told reporters on Saturday. "We want to have a growing portion of the revenue share. We want this league to be exactly what it is today and more. So I'm hoping that something positive [and] progressive yields from this meeting that we'll have in Indy."

The WNBPA will enter face-to-face CBA negotiations with the WNBA in Indianapolis later this month, with the union tapping Nobel Prize-winning economist Claudia Goldin to assist in what Stewart predicts will be a "spicy" meeting.

The 2025 Prefontaine Classic shattered world records on Saturday, as a pair of long- and middle-distance runners showed their class in a historic track and field meet.

On a day that international governing body World Athletics called the sport's best-ever single-day of competition — with the 2025 Prefontaine Classic seeing more performance points earned than in any other one-day meet in track and field history — two Kenyan stars rose above the rest.

Saturday saw Faith Kipyegon hit a personal best of 3:48.68 in the 1,500-meter race to break through her own world record by a 0.36-second margin.

The 31-year-old, who holds the last three Olympic titles in the event, claimed the new historic time less than two weeks removed from her first attempt to break the four-minute mile mark — a distance just 109 meters farther than the standard 1,500-meter race.

The Prefontaine Classic also saw fellow Kenyan Beatrice Chebet become the first woman to race 5,000 meters in under 14 minutes, with the 25-year-old breaking the barrier by turning in a world record time of 13:58.06 — shaving more than two seconds off Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay's previous world mark of 14:00.21.

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"I'm so happy," Chebet said afterward. "After [the June Diamond League meet in] Rome, I say that I am capable of running a world record so let me go back home and prepare… I told myself, 'if Faith [Kipyegon] is trying for a world record in Eugene, why not me too?'"

Along with the 5,000-meter mark, Chebet also holds the 10,000-meter record — as well as 2024 Olympic gold medals in both events.

Meanwhile, US hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone snagged sprinting headlines with a season-best time of 49.43 seconds to win the 400-meter flat race, continuing her progress as a flat runner after years dominating the 400-meter hurdles.