At the start of each half, the reserves on the Washington Mystics bench stand until their starters score their first basket, a common tradition across basketball.
After a highly competitive opening half, the Mystics led by one point in their attempt to stave off elimination in Game 3 of their WNBA semifinals against the Minnesota Lynx. Washington's reserves stood optimistically in the opening minute of the third quarter. But then two minutes ticked by without a Mystics basket.
Three minutes crept toward four, the initially jubilant attitudes of players like Allison Hightower and Ivory Latta turning antsy as they watched their team miss five field goals to start the quarter and the Lynx reel off 11 unanswered points, including an eight-point burst from Seimone Augustus.
The Mystics finally scored with 6:03 left in the third quarter, but that third-quarter drought proved a key moment in the game and helped propel the Lynx to an 81-70 victory. Minnesota advanced to the WNBA Finals, where it will face the defending champion Los Angeles Sparks for the second consecutive season. It's the first rematch in the championship since 2000, and also the first time since 2010 that both teams entered the WNBA Finals with a perfect postseason record.
"They were making shots and unfortunately we weren't getting some looks, were a little cold," Mystics forward Elena Delle Donne said. "They were a great team, they're going to go on runs, if you can't respond to those runs, that's when you get into trouble."
After scoring seven points in the first quarter, Delle Donne scored just eight points the rest of the game -- a decrease she said was the result of a game-plan change in which the team relied on her to set screens in the pick-and-roll offense.
Still, Washington weathered a handful of Minnesota's offensive surges, with players like Tierra Ruffin-Pratt -- who finished with 14 points on 4-for-8 shooting -- helping the Mystics put together runs of their own.
"There were about two to three instances in this game where it could have gone south fast," Mystics coach Mike Thibault said. "All of a sudden you turn around and you're back within two or four and we stay in the game."
While the Mystics were able to hold their ground after the Lynx's third-quarter scoring blitz, the run allowed veterans like Sylvia Fowles and Augustus to find their rhythm. After scoring just two points in the opening half, Augustus scored 12 points in the quarter. Fowles pulled down five rebounds.
The Lynx were successful from all over the court. Their ability to shoot from beyond the arc early on (they started 7-for-10 before finishing 7-for-14 from 3-point range) stretched the Washington defense, leaving the paint susceptible to the dominance of regular-season MVP Fowles. Minnesota tallied 36 points in the paint, and sealed the game with a 16-5 run in the fourth quarter.
Maya Moore finished with 21 points, including multiple acrobatic finger rolls off of dribble penetration. The balance and unpredictability across the veteran starting lineup is a formula that made Minnesota dominant for a majority of the regular season and what led the Lynx to their fifth shot at a championship in six years.
"The luxury of our team is that we can go to anyone at any given time," Augustus said. "I had my moments, [Lindsay] Whalen had her moments, Maya had her moments and then Sylvia kind of finished it up in the paint and post."
The loss puts an end to a respectable season for the Mystics, who managed to make a run despite a handful of adversity over the course of the year. Whether it was Delle Donne breaking her hand back in early August, guard Tayler Hill being sidelined for the season in July, or losing Emma Meesseman to overseas play for a month in June, Delle Donne is proud of what the team was able to accomplish in her first season in Washington.
"I think one of the biggest things you see with the team is never making excuses for one another," she said. "This team never made an excuse and let that get into our heads."
Kristi Toliver, who had 13 points on 5-of-13 shooting, added: "The adversity that we faced together as a team will only help us in the long run. [Minnesota is] the kind of team that sets the bar and we got to play against the bar."
Heading into the Finals, Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said a key to winning this year's title will be her team's ability to continue to find success from beyond the arc.
"I think it's going to be necessary for us to win a championship. I think you've got to have that balance," said Reeve, whose team shot 33.8 percent from the 3-point line last postseason. "Sylvia is going to be on the inside, we're going to defend our tails off and hopefully be able to rebound. We've got to have balance."