Professional Sports Leagues: WNBA

Professional Sports Leagues: WNBA — page 3 — After an incredible season the Washington Mystics found themselves tied at two games apiece with the Connecticut Sun in the 2019 Women's National Basketball Association WNBA finals The Mystics star player Elena Delle Donne was hampered by a back injury suffered earlier in the series Delle Donne's dreams of a WNBA title had come down to the final five and a half minutes of Game 5 Delle Donne had led the Mystics to the WNBA's best record during the 2019 regular season winning her second most valuable player MVP award in the process But after the top seeded Mystics won the opening game of the best of five series against the Sun Delle Donne exited Game 2 early with what turned out to be three herniated disks in her back With the six foot five Delle Donne on the bench the Sun evened the finals at a game apiece With a limited Delle Donne contributing just 13 and 11 points in the next two games respectively and the full extent of her injury not disclosed the teams split those games This set up a decisive fifth game on the Mystics home court in their new arena With 5:39 left in Game 5 the Sun's Courtney Williams brought her team even with the Mystics at 72–72 On the Mystics ensuing possession Delle Donne wearing a clear plastic face mask to protect the nose she had broken earlier in the season as well as a bulky brace on her bruised left knee spun and hit a turnaround fadeaway jumper from the left side to put the Mystics up 74–72 One of her 6

Professional Sports Leagues: WNBA — page 4 — later shots from the lane made it 78–72 helping propel Washington to an 89-78 victory and their first WNBA title Delle Donne playing 37 minutes in the game finished with 21 points and a team high nine rebounds It feels phenomenal my goodness feels so good Delle Donne said Hard to put it into TWEET FROM THE TOP words To win it with such Former president Barack a great group of people Obama well known for his We wanted to win it for passion for basketball weighed in via Twitter after the Mystics the person next to us We'll championship Congrats to remember this season I'm the @WashMystics on a gutsy first ever championship A great kind of sad the season's team performance when it about to be over My counted If folks aren't careful this title thing might become a goodness we sure ended habit in DC this on a high note FROM MISTAKES TO CHAMPIONS After the WNBA's original eight teams began play in 1997 the league added two expansion franchises the Mystics and the Detroit Shock the following season The Mystics finished their first season with a 3-27 record and were so woeful in their early years that some fans called them the Mistakes It would take 22 years and the addition of Delle Donne to make them champions 7

Professional Sports Leagues: WNBA — page 5 — M Mystics players lifted the trophy before the crowd following the 2019 championship victory Before Delle Donne's arrival in a 2017 trade with the Chicago Sky the Mystics had made the playoffs nine times since joining the league in 1998. But in that time the Mystics had won just one playoff series the Eastern Conference 8

Professional Sports Leagues: WNBA — page 6 — semifinals in 2002. Before 2019 Delle Donne had been to the finals twice but her teams were 0-6 in those games In her 2014 season with Chicago Delle Donne was limited to just 16 regular season games due to the effects of chronic Lyme disease which she had battled since 2008 She returned for the playoffs but the Sky were swept in 9

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