This was exactly what Sandy Brondello warned about.
The Mystics were better than their sub-.500 record.
They were better than their No. 7 seed entering the postseason too.
The core of Washington’s 2019 WNBA title team remains intact, and that group helped build a 12-point lead Sunday and then ultimately won when Brittney Sykes hit a game-winning floater with 0.5 seconds left off an inbounds underneath the basket to secure a 90-88 victory to end the regular season.
It took a furious last-minute rally for the Liberty to even reach this point, one that featured Breanna Stewart hitting the game-tying shot with 21 seconds left and blocking Elena Delle Donne’s game-winning attempt in the final seconds.
But that’s exactly why Brondello, the Liberty’s head coach, cautioned that the Mystics are “not a seven seed, put it that way.”
Washington forward Tianna Hawkins said they’re an “underrated” threat entering the postseason too.
“If they’re healthy, they’re a top-four seed,” Brondello said pregame. “We know that.”
The Mystics showed that during the season opener when they crushed the Liberty by 16 points.
Injuries prevented them from replicating that throughout the regular season, when Delle Donne missed 17 games, Ariel Atkins missed 13 and Shakira Austin missed 20.
But Washington demonstrated its potential again Sunday, when it held Breanna Stewart to three points through three quarters, Sykes scored 20 points and Natasha Cloud added 17 to snap the Liberty’s eight-game winning streak.
The loss ended the Liberty’s chance at the No. 1 seed.
It was an outside shot, one that required the Aces to lose their 3 p.m. game Sunday afternoon against the Mercury, and even if that happened, any final shifting in the standings hinged on the second tiebreaker — how they fared against teams with records better than .500 — since the Liberty and Las Vegas split their season series.
They still flashed potential against the Mystics, when the offense produced a 50-point first half behind 12 points from Ionescu, 11 from Laney and 10 from Jones.
Stewart, who made 40-point games a regular occurrence and averaged 23 points per game, managed just two in the opening 20 minutes on 1-for-7 shooting.
During one second-quarter sequence, Jonquel Jones fought for a rebound in the corner near the Liberty bench, managing to fling a skip pass to Marine Johannes.
Then, Johannes dribbled once and slid a behind-the-back, no-look pass to Betnijah Laney — who signed an extension Saturday to stay with the Liberty — for a 3-pointer that made the Barclays Center fans erupt as the Liberty’s lead grew to six.
The probable chance of these two teams meeting in the postseason turned Sunday’s game into a case study of which players would play, how many minutes they would log and to what degree Brondello and Mystics head coach Eric Thibault would implement valuable adjustments — not trying to show too much.
Brondello wanted her players to find a rhythm.
The Liberty hadn’t played the Mystics since July 21, so they wanted to discover and perhaps get a hint at the type of team they’ve evolved into since then.
The unveiling of the Commissioner’s Cup banner in the Barclays Center rafters — the Liberty’s first championship banner, even though they earned it via an in-season tournament — depicted that progress.
It was a reminder, and a permanent one at that, of how far this group could advance if everything synced.
And then the Mystics gave them a different reminder.
This time from Sykes. This time in the form of a stunning game-winning shot. And this time showing just how difficult a playoff run could be for the Liberty.