Washington Mystics they’ll have to climb the New York Liberty Mountain in the first round of the WNBA playoffs, and they’ll have to without Shakira Austin.
Central Washington still recovering from a hip injury costing her much of the regular season, Austin will miss at least the first two games of the series at Barclays Center in New York, and he could only return for a possible third game. Shakira Austin returned to the field in August, but she suffered a relapse of the problem and had to stop again because of it. 19 games in total in season.
Before he left, Austin had an All-Star season, averaging another 12 points and 8 rebounds, averages that dropped following his partial return.
The Washington Mystics came through difficult season with injuriesthey missed Shakira Austin’s matches, Elena Delle DonneNatasha Cloud, Christy Toliver and Ariel Atkins, Toliver He suffered a cruciate ligament injury in his right knee two weeks ago and clearly won’t play in the playoffs. The Mystics still managed to reach the postseason with seventh-best WNBA record (19-21), the New York Liberty might have been an insurmountable obstacle, but in the final game of the regular season, Washington won 90-88 on the road on Britney Sykes’ shot with 0.5 seconds left.