# 2020 Washington Mystics season

The 2020 Washington Mystics season was the franchise's 23rd season in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The regular season tipped off versus the Indiana Fever on July 25, 2020.
This WNBA season will feature an all-time high 36 regular-season games. However, the plan for expanded games was put on hold on April 3, when the WNBA postponed its season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under a plan approved on June 15, the league is scheduled to hold a shortened 22-game regular season at IMG Academy, without fans present, starting on July 24.
The Mystics were without star Elena Delle Donne for the season, as she sat out due to COVID-19 concerns. Expectations were lowered when it was announced that the 2019 MVP would be out for the season. However, the Mystics defied those expectations in their first three games, winning all three. However, the season took a drastic turn for the worse after that, with the team going 1–11 in their August games. At 4–11 overall, the Mystics were on the outside looking in for the playoffs. The Mystics went 5–2 in September, including a four game win-streak to finish the season and secure the eight seed in the playoffs. As the eight seed, they lost in the first round to the Phoenix Mercury.

## Transactions
### WNBA draft

| Round | Pick | Player | Nationality | School/Team/Country |
| 2 | 24 | Jaylyn Agnew | United States | Creighton |
| 3 | 36 | Sug Sutton | United States | Texas |

### Trades and roster changes

| Date | Details |
| February 11, 2020 | Re-Signed F Elena Delle Donne |
| February 13, 2020 | Signed G Leilani Mitchell |
| February 17, 2020 | Re-signed G Emma Meesseman |
| April 15, 2020 | Engaged in a three team trade where they acquired Tina Charles in exchange for their first-round pick in the 2020 WNBA draft and their first, second, and third round pick in the 2021 WNBA draft and G Shatori Walker-Kimbrough. |
| June 22, 2020 | G Natasha Cloud and F/C LaToya Sanders announce they will opt out of the 2020 season. |
| June 26, 2020 | Signed G/F Essence Carson. |
| June 29, 2020 | Signed C Alaina Coates and G Shey Peddy. |

## Game log
### Regular season

2020 game log Total: 9–13 :
July
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
1
July 25
Indiana Fever
W 101–76
Hines-Allen (27)
Hines-Allen (10)
Mitchell (4)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
1–0
2
July 28
Connecticut Sun
W 94–89
Powers (27)
Hines-Allen (8)
Meesseman (8)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
2–0
3
July 30
Seattle Storm
W 89–71
Atkins (22)
Powers (8)
Mitchell (6)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
3–0 :
August
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
4
August 1
Chicago Sky
L 86–88
Atkins (24)
Hines-Allen (10)
Meesseman (6)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
3–1
5
August 5
Las Vegas Aces
L 77–83
Meesseman (24)
Meesseman (13)
Mitchell (4)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
3–2
6
August 7
New York Liberty
L 66–74
Powers (20)
Hines-Allen (8)
Mitchell (5)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
3–3
7
August 9
Indiana Fever
L 84–91
Meesseman (19)
Hawkins (10)
Mitchell (5)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
3–4
8
August 11
Minnesota Lynx
L 48–68
Hines-Allen (12)
3 tied (6)
3 tied (3)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
3–5
9
August 13
Los Angeles Sparks
L 64–81
Atkins (20)
Meesseman (11)
Tied (5)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
3–6
10
August 15
Las Vegas Aces
L 73–88
Atkins (17)
Meesseman (9)
Tied (5)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
3–7
11
August 19
Atlanta Dream
W 98–91
Johnson (25)
Meesseman (6)
Meesseman (10)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
4–7
12
August 21
Dallas Wings
L 92–101 (OT)
Hines-Allen (35)
Hines-Allen (12)
Mitchell (4)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
4–8
13
August 23
Phoenix Mercury
L 87–88
Hawkins (19)
Hines-Allen (13)
Hines-Allen (8)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
4–9
14
August 28
Phoenix Mercury
L 72–94
Mitchell (17)
Tied (6)
Mitchell (5)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
4–10
15
August 30
Connecticut Sun
L 63–76
Tied (14)
Hines-Allen (13)
Hines-Allen (6)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
4–11 :
September
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
16
September 2
Seattle Storm
L 64–71
Meesseman (17)
Hines-Allen (6)
Mitchell (5)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
4–12
17
September 4
Chicago Sky
W 79–69
Mitchell (20)
Hines-Allen (10)
Mitchell (12)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
5–12
18
September 6
Dallas Wings
L 94–101 (OT)
Atkins (22)
Hines-Allen (13)
Mitchell (9)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
5–13
19
September 8
Minnesota Lynx
W 89–86
Hines-Allen (26)
Hines-Allen (9)
Mitchell (10)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
6–13
20
September 10
Los Angeles Sparks
W 80–72
Hines-Allen (30)
Hines-Allen (8)
Mitchell (9)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
7–13
21
September 12
New York Liberty
W 75–58
Hines-Allen (25)
Hines-Allen (11)
Meesseman (7)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
8–13
22
September 13
Atlanta Dream
W 85–78
Atkins (26)
Hines-Allen (10)
Tied (7)
IMG Academy No In-Person Attendance
9–13 :
2020 season schedule :

### Playoffs

2020 playoff game log Total: 0–1 :
First Round
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceSeries
1
September 15
Phoenix Mercury
L 84–85
Mitchell (25)
Hines-Allen (9)
4 tied (4)
IMG Academy
0–1 :
2020 playoff schedule :

## Standings

| # | Team | W | L | PCT | GB | Conf. |
| 1 | x – Las Vegas Aces | 18 | 4 | .818 | – | 8–2 |
| 2 | x – Seattle Storm | 18 | 4 | .818 | – | 8–2 |
| 3 | x – Los Angeles Sparks | 15 | 7 | .682 | 3 | 5–5 |
| 4 | x – Minnesota Lynx | 14 | 8 | .636 | 4 | 4–6 |
| 5 | x – Phoenix Mercury | 13 | 9 | .591 | 5 | 4–6 |
| 6 | x – Chicago Sky | 12 | 10 | .545 | 6 | 6–4 |
| 7 | x – Connecticut Sun | 10 | 12 | .455 | 8 | 7–3 |
| 8 | x – Washington Mystics | 9 | 13 | .409 | 9 | 6–4 |
| 9 | e – Dallas Wings | 8 | 14 | .364 | 10 | 1–9 |
| 10 | e – Atlanta Dream | 7 | 15 | .318 | 11 | 5–5 |
| 11 | e – Indiana Fever | 6 | 16 | .273 | 12 | 4–6 |
| 12 | e – New York Liberty | 2 | 20 | .091 | 16 | 2–8 |
* v
* t
* e
Notes
    x – Clinched playoff berth
    e – Eliminated from playoffs
    Home and Away records not shown, as all games played at a neutral location.
    Updated to include results from September 13, 2020
    Source

## Playoffs

| First round: Single elimination (September 15) | First round: Single elimination (September 15) | First round: Single elimination (September 15) | Second round: Single elimination (September 17) | Second round: Single elimination (September 17) | Second round: Single elimination (September 17) | Semifinals: Best-of-five (September 20–29) | Semifinals: Best-of-five (September 20–29) | Semifinals: Best-of-five (September 20–29) | Semifinals: Best-of-five (September 20–29) | Semifinals: Best-of-five (September 20–29) | Semifinals: Best-of-five (September 20–29) | Semifinals: Best-of-five (September 20–29) | WNBA Finals: Best-of-five (October 2–11) | WNBA Finals: Best-of-five (October 2–11) | WNBA Finals: Best-of-five (October 2–11) | WNBA Finals: Best-of-five (October 2–11) | WNBA Finals: Best-of-five (October 2–11) |
| | | | | | | 1 | Las Vegas Aces | 62 | 83 | 68 | 84 | 66 | | | | | |
| | | | 4 | Minnesota Lynx | 80 | 7 | Connecticut Sun | 87 | 75 | 77 | 75 | 63 | | | | | |
| 5 | Phoenix Mercury | 85 | 5 | Phoenix Mercury | 79 | | | | | | | | 1 | Las Vegas Aces | 80 | 91 | 59 |
| 8 | Washington Mystics | 84 | | | | | | | | | | | 2 | Seattle Storm | 93 | 104 | 92 |
| | | | | | | 2 | Seattle Storm | Seattle Storm | Seattle Storm | 88 | 89 | 92 | | | | | |
| | | | 3 | Los Angeles Sparks | 59 | 4 | Minnesota Lynx | Minnesota Lynx | Minnesota Lynx | 86 | 79 | 71 | | | | | |
| 6 | Chicago Sky | 81 | 7 | Connecticut Sun | 73 | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 7 | Connecticut Sun | 94 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Note: Teams re-seeded after each round.

## Statistics
### Regular season

| Player | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
| Myisha Hines-Allen | 22 | 22 | 30.0 | 51.0 | 42.6 | 82.8 | 8.9 | 2.6 | 1.5 | 0.2 | 17.0 |
| Aerial Powers | 6 | 6 | 29.8 | 46.4 | 34.6 | 83.3 | 4.8 | 2.5 | 1.5 | 0 | 16.3 |
| Ariel Atkins | 22 | 22 | 31.0 | 43.8 | 41.1 | 88.6 | 2.9 | 2.4 | 1.8 | 0.3 | 14.8 |
| Emma Meesseman | 20 | 20 | 31.0 | 45.4 | 28.9 | 82.9 | 5.3 | 4.5 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 13.0 |
| Leilani Mitchell | 22 | 22 | 30.6 | 40.8 | 30.5 | 87.2 | 2.8 | 5.4 | 0.8 | 0 | 9.5 |
| Stella Johnson | 5 | 2 | 18.8 | 48.5 | 64.3 | 100 | 2.0 | 2.4 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 9.2 |
| Tianna Hawkins | 17 | 5 | 19.4 | 40.8 | 29.8 | 84.6 | 3.5 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 8.5 |
| Kiara Leslie | 19 | 10 | 21.8 | 35.2 | 36.2 | 92.3 | 3.0 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 5.5 |
| Jacki Gemelos | 12 | 1 | 16.1 | 31.3 | 20.7 | 50.0 | 1.4 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 3.2 |
| Sug Sutton | 12 | 0 | 9.4 | 36.4 | 29.4 | 71.4 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 0 | 2.8 |
| Alaina Coates | 20 | 0 | 9.9 | 52.9 | 0 | 53.8 | 2.8 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 2.5 |

## Awards and honors

| Recipient | Award | Date awarded |
| Myisha Hines-Allen | Eastern Conference Player of the Week | August 3, 2020 |
| Myisha Hines-Allen | Eastern Conference Player of the Week | September 14, 2020 |
| Myisha Hines-Allen | Eastern Conference Player of the Month – September | September 15, 2020 |
| Ariel Atkins | 2nd Team All-Defense | September 29, 2020 |
| Myisha Hines-Allen | All-WNBA Second Team | October 4, 2020 |