Mystics comfortably win first game in cozy new home

By Ava Wallace

Ava Wallace

Reporter covering local colleges and universities

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June 1 at 11:09 PM

The first moment of the Washington Mystics’ home opener in their new arena was one of unbridled joy — from one of the team’s most buttoned-up players.

When Kristi Toliver led the Mystics onto their home court for warmups at Entertainment and Sports Arena on Saturday night, she went through her usual pregame ritual of lobbing the ball high into the air while spinning around on one foot. But this time felt different — a wide smile stretched her cheeks as music thumped, fans cheered and a grinning Myisha Hines-Allen caught the ball.

Toliver’s exuberance was a sign of things to come for Washington, which beat the Atlanta Dream, 96-75, and celebrated a strong turnout in their new, 4,200-seat arena in Southeast Washington.

[Box score: Mystics 96, Dream 75]

“Good way to christen a new building,” Coach and General Manager Mike Thibault said.

The game was officially deemed a sellout; there were empty seats speckled throughout the venue, but the arena appeared about 90 percent full.

Mystics guard Ariel Atkins drives past Dream guard Brittney Sykes during the first quarter of Washington’s first game at Entertainment and Sports Arena on Saturday. Atkins finished with a game-high 21 points on 8-for-11 shooting. (Terrance Williams/For The Washington Post)

More importantly, the crowd was loud and amped — an energy magnified by the coziness of the venue and spurred by an excellent shooting night from the Mystics, an 18-point performance from Elena Delle Donne and a game-high 21 points from guard Ariel Atkins. Fans are seated so close to the court that when Atlanta’s Renee Montgomery checked in during the second quarter, she crinkled her nose and remarked that it smelled like food in front of the scorer’s table. Wizards guard Bradley Beal was two seats away eating chicken tenders.

Beal wasn’t the only prominent person who came to watch a dominant performance from the Mystics. Ted Leonsis, the majority owner of the Monumental Sports & Entertainment ownership group, watched the game courtside. Former Mystics stars Monique Curry and Chamique Holdsclaw were in attendance. Barry Trotz, who led the Washington Capitals to their first Stanley Cup championship last year and now coaches the New York Islanders, sat behind the Mystics’ bench. Trotz is a ­longtime friend of Thibault’s.

[Mystics hope for a true home-court advantage at new Entertainment and Sports Arena]

Thibault’s team put on a strong showing for celebrity and noncelebrity fans alike, something important for a franchise trying to draw its fan base out to a new location away from downtown.

“It’s great when you can put on a show like that, especially the first show,” Delle Donne said. “It’s huge to make a good impression.”

The Mystics didn’t take long to get going, jumping out to a 10-2 lead and taking advantage of poor shooting by the visitors.

Washington had a week-long break between its season-opening loss at Connecticut and Saturday’s game; the Dream was playing the second night of a back-to-back, having lost to the reigning WNBA champion Seattle Storm on Friday night. The Mystics exploited that and went at Atlanta aggressively from the start, poking the ball away for two steals in the first five minutes.

The Dream, which is missing Angel McCoughtry, its second-leading scorer and rebounder from last season, because of a torn ACL, made just 7 of 19 shots in the first quarter while Washington hardly seemed to miss.

The Mystics’ all-stars from 2018, Delle Donne and Toliver, combined to shoot 8 for 9 for 17 points in the first period.

“We shot the ball really well, obviously, so I don’t think shooting will be an issue as far as the sightlines or anything [in the new arena]. I think we’ve got that part figured out,” Thibault said. “We set the tone defensively in the first half. We made shots tough for them. Obviously they played last night, but we tried to take their legs from them with our pressure and with our transition back at them and make them have to work.”

The home opener was Delle Donne’s first game of the season, but there was no rust in sight.

The forward missed last week’s game after hyperextending the left knee she had injured in last year’s playoff series against Atlanta. Delle Donne nursed the injury for much of the offseason but hyperextended her knee multiple times as the team started practicing this season; she wore a heavy, custom-made brace for stability Saturday.

“This brace, I actually love it,” Delle Donne said. “It’s a custom one, and it looks big, but I feel like I can move and do everything normal; I just feel a little bit safer in it. . . . If it’s going to give me that peace of mind, then I’ll stay in it as long as I need to.”

Delle Donne had no trouble moving with the brace, and just before halftime she juked out a defender — first a stab step with that left leg, then a slide back to her right — to sink a long pullup jumper that put the Mystics up 52-35 heading into the locker room. She ended the half without missing a shot.

“When you’re 7 for 7 at halftime, we’re saying, man, we better keep throwing her the ball,” Thibault said.

Washington maintained its energy and good shooting through the third quarter and grew its lead to 32 as Atlanta continued to struggle. The Dream ended up shooting 42.3 percent from the field thanks in part to a fourth-quarter resurgence when the Mystics rested Delle Donne and Toliver. Alex Bentley and Tiffany Hayes led Atlanta with 11 points each.

Aside from Delle Donne and Atkins, Emma Meesseman had 14 points and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough had 10.

“It was a lot of fun. Everybody was energized. [The crowd was] into it, and it helps,” Toliver said. “When you’re out there playing, you feed off the crowd. And for us, we were able to maintain high energy for the majority of the game, and a lot of that was due to our fans.”