– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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WASHINGTON — As long as the New York Liberty, safe in the fact that they are heading to the postseason, matched the intensity of their opponent, on their last legs in terms of making the postseason, a letdown would not be in the cards. New York did just that, and now will head into the postseason knowing that the road to a WNBA championship — a first in franchise history if it can claim it — will head through New York.
Breanna Stewart had 15 points and 10 rebounds, leading five Liberty players in double figures in scoring, as New York clinched the No. 1 seed in the upcoming WNBA Playoffs with an 87-71 victory over the Washington Mystics inside Entertainment & Sports Arena on Tuesday evening. New York’s defense held the Mystics to 37 percent shooting one game after allowing the Minnesota Lynx to shoot 53 percent in a home defeat last Sunday.
Washington’s defeat, along with the Atlanta Dream’s win over the Chicago Sky, drops the Mystics one game behind the Dream for the eighth and final playoff spot with one game remaining with the regular season, on Thursday. The most surefire way the Mystics make the postseason is if they defeat the Indiana Fever, who are already locked into the No. 6 spot in the postseason regardless, and the Atlanta Dream lose in Brooklyn to the Liberty. A three-way tie with the Sky is also possible, and the Mystics currently own the tiebreaker in that scenario.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Tuesday evening’s game, with photos taken by DC-area photographers Yusuf Abdullah and Clifford Ray Williams. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 19 pictures in total.
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