The Mystics Caught Fire In Game 3 To Beat The Sun And Take A 2-1 Series Lead

The Sun hosted the Mystics on Sunday afternoon at the Mohegan Sun in a critical Game 3 of the WNBA Finals as the series was tied 1-1 as it shifted north to Connecticut.

Washington, which saw MVP Elena Delle Donne exit Game 2 with a back injury, got a boost as both Delle Donne and Ariel Atkins were able to play in Game 3. While EDD was clearly not at 100 percent, she was able to give them a bit of an offensive boost with 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting, including 3-of-4 from three-point range in a 94-81 win.

Delle Donne wasn’t the only one that was hot from downtown as the Mystics as a team shot a ridiculous 16-of-27 (59.3%) from three-point range on the afternoon. Natasha Cloud was 5-of-10 from deep in a 19-point performance, and Kristi Toliver and Emma Meesseman combined to hit 7-of-8 attempts from distance as both topped 20 points on the evening.

The Sun made a rally late in the second quarter, going on a 12-0 run, and hung around in the early third quarter, but could never quite get over the hump and fully reel in the Mystics, who seemingly always had an answer.

Washington would pull away again in the third quarter behind their unbelievably consistent hot shooting, like this stepback three from Toliver, who posted just the third 20-10 game in WNBA Finals history on Sunday.

Still, the Sun had one more run in them late, cutting the Washington lead to 10 with just over three minutes to play, but a timely Delle Donne driving bucket stopped the bleeding and kept Connecticut at arm’s length.

The Sun will, once again, have to regroup and adjust to get a win in Game 4 on Tuesday night to force a decisive Game 5 back in Washington. No matter what the Sun do, if Washington shoots the way they did in Game 3, they’ll be nearly impossible to beat.