Dallas Wings Prepare To ‘Match That Energy’ Against Washington Mystics In Duel Of Young Teams

ARLINGTON, Texas — Two of the WNBA’s youngest rosters meet Monday at College Park Center, where the Dallas Wings host the Washington Mystics to close a three-game homestand. The early weeks have tested both.

The Wings are 1-2 and have lost two in a row, most recently 90-86 at home to the Minnesota Lynx on Thursday. Washington sits a game better at 2-1. The Mystics needed overtime to get their last win, 104-102 at Indiana. Now in their second year under coach Sydney Johnson, they have leaned into one of the league’s youngest cores.

Washington Mystics Eye the Dallas Wings’ Reshaped Roster

Johnson said Dallas presents a problem at both ends, starting with a frontcourt the Wings rebuilt in the offseason by acquiring Alanna Smith and Jessica Shepard to pair with Paige Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale.

“Their frontcourt. I mean, wow. With Alanna and Jess, they’re just proven high-level players at this level, real pros,” Johnson said. “Then obviously you add that to the firepower of a Paige and an Arike. Their roster is quite good, and they have a very good coach. Jose’s won a lot of games.”

Washington’s Kiki Iriafen sized up the same group from a post player’s view. She acknowledged the challenges Smith and Shepard pose, then pointed out that the challenge runs both directions.

“They have length. Smith is a great shot blocker. Jess is very shifty in the post. They can shoot the ball,” Iriafen said. “So they definitely will pose some challenges, but they also have to guard us as well, so I think it’ll be a great matchup for our frontcourt and theirs.”

Sonia Citron said the offseason additions did more than upgrade one position. She described Smith and Shepard as the kind of players who handle the unglamorous work, and said that depth has changed the look of the Dallas roster.

“Obviously Smith and Shepard, they’re great post players, great screeners, great rollers, kind of do a lot of the dirty work. I feel like they’re great defenders as well,” Citron said. “So I think it just makes their team a lot more well-rounded. They added great pieces.”

Containing the Dallas Wings’ Backcourt

The frontcourt is only half of it. Iriafen said the Wings’ scorers, Arike Ogunbowale chief among them, can take over a game if Washington lets them get comfortable, and that stopping them is not a one-on-one assignment.

“They’re great scorers. They’re incredible scorers, so just not letting them get hot, making it difficult for them,” Iriafen said. “Again, it’s going to be team basketball, a team effort to stop that team.”

Citron, who figures to spend time on Bueckers, said the Mystics are not counting on any one player to slow the Wings guard. The goal is narrower than stopping her.

“I think Paige is the kind of player where one person can’t really stop her, so obviously it’s a team effort,” Citron said. “But just trying to make everything hard for her.”

Citron said the bigger task is taking away the speed that lets Dallas dictate. Let the Wings run, she said, and they will take the game apart.

“They play super fast, so slowing them down, just getting to a man, not letting them run down the court and do whatever they want,” Citron said, “because then they’re going to pick you apart.”

Jose Fernandez Maps Out the Defensive Plan

Wings coach Jose Fernandez spent Saturday’s practice on internal focuses before turning to the Washington scout on Sunday. He said the Mystics matchup begins with handling Iriafen and Austin without letting Washington dictate where the ball goes.

“We’ve really got to fight, and there can’t just be direct entries. They do a good job freeing those guys up,” Fernandez said. “But the most important thing is if the shot goes up, we can’t give them second and third opportunities, which they do a really good job of creating.”

The second-chance concern is not abstract. Minnesota held an 18-9 edge in second-chance points in Thursday’s loss, and rebounding was one of the defensive areas the Wings drilled over the weekend.

Fernandez said slowing Citron, Washington’s leading scorer early, means denying her the spots where she does her work. He pointed to the elbow as the area to take away.

“She can’t catch it in the elbow area. You can’t get caught topsiding her because Citron does a good job getting the ball to the elbow and curling around,” Fernandez said. “You’ve just got to make sure you keep Sonia in front of you and she can’t get wide-open looks. You can’t let really good players have uncontested shots.”

Fernandez also said he wants to keep his guards out of the post against Washington’s bigs, a problem that surfaced when Bueckers was switched onto Natasha Howard in the Minnesota loss.

“We don’t want her on Natasha Howard or Kiki or Austin,” Fernandez said. “Especially in transition defense, we’ve got to get them out of the paint.”

A Scouting Read From The Inside

Few players know the Mystics better than Alysha Clark, who spent last season in Washington. She said the matchup starts with corralling Iriafen and Austin, two bigs she described as mobile, active and relentless on the glass.

“They’re two bigs that are super mobile and active, and they dominate on the glass. We have to limit their second-chance opportunities and show them a crowd,” Clark said, “because they’re both really shifty and crafty inside.”

Clark said the Mystics’ young guards are just as much of a problem, and she singled out Amoore.

“Georgia’s come in this year playing with a lot of confidence. She can really shoot the ball and her IQ is super high,” Clark said. “We’ve got to make sure whatever shots they get are tough, contested shots and not give them anything easy. They have a lot of really young guards that play hard, and you have to match that energy for the entire game.”

Dallas Wings Look to Steady Themselves

All three of the Wings’ games have come down to the final minutes. Over the weekend, with a rare two practices between games, Dallas went back to work on a defense that had slipped, and the team’s veterans spent the practices pulling a young group toward a common standard.

Maddy Siegrist gave Dallas a lift off the bench against Minnesota, scoring 17 points in 16 minutes. She said her job stays the same no matter how the minutes fall.

“That’s all you can do, control you. Every second you’re on the court is a great opportunity,” Siegrist said. “Just keep staying ready and take every opportunity every game.”

Aziaha James, who is in her second WNBA season, said the team’s younger players have learned a lot from leaning on the veterans around them.

“We have plenty of veterans and for the younger players to look up to them, they teach us a lot on the court,” James said. “So yeah, we just keep learning from them.”

Siegrist, in her fourth WNBA season, said the slow start is not something the Wings are reading too much into this early.

“We’re only three games in. We’re still figuring it out as a group,” Siegrist said. “Nobody wants to be playing their best basketball three games into the year. You want to get better every single game.”

Bueckers said after Saturday’s practice, the Wings had kept their focus on themselves, but she had seen enough of Washington to know what was coming.

“I watched a couple of their games. They play really fast. They play really selfless. They have really good off-ball movement,” Bueckers said. “Obviously, they have great frontcourt play, great backcourt play. So we’re just really focused on who we are right now and trying to find that identity.”

A Mentor on the Other Bench

There is a familiar face in the matchup. Clark, now a veteran voice for the Wings, played in Washington last season, where Iriafen and Citron were rookies and she was the one they leaned on.

Iriafen, who leaned on Clark as a rookie, said the lesson that stuck was about staying even through a season’s swings.

“She taught me a lot about patience. This is a game of runs and not getting too high or too low,” Iriafen said. “I’d say that’s the biggest thing I learned from her last season.”

Citron came away with the same thing, and she said Clark backed it up in how she carried herself.

“One thing I learned from her is that in the W you play so often that you really can’t get too high or too low,” Citron said. “She was the definition of that, just staying consistent in everything that she did and staying consistent in how she showed up every day.”

Up Next

Tip-off between the Wings and Mystics is set for 7 p.m. CT on Peacock. Dallas begins a three-game road trip after the game, including stops in Chicago, Atlanta, and New York.

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