Mystics' hopes hinge on clash with first-place Liberty

In Tuesday's penultimate regular-season game for both teams, the Washington Mystics are trying to hang on to the final WNBA playoff spot as the visiting New York Liberty close in on the No. 1 seed.

Washington (13-25) started the season 0-12 but has rallied to a three-way tie with the Chicago Sky and Atlanta Dream for the final playoff spot. At least one team will drop from that No. 8 spot Tuesday since the Sky and Dream face each other at Atlanta.

First-place New York (31-7) holds a two-game lead over the second-place Minnesota Lynx, with two games remaining for each team. Red-hot Minnesota holds the tiebreaker over New York and is set to play at third-place Connecticut on Tuesday.

Washington narrowly missed a chance to enhance its playoff chances with a 76-73 overtime home loss to Atlanta on Sunday. The Mystics' Ariel Atkins scored 16 points, but Washington went cold after drawing a 73-70 lead early in the extra period.

Atkins and Brittney Sykes each missed potential game-tying 3-point tries in the final 34 seconds as Washington failed to gain an upper hand on the final playoff spot.

Before the loss, Washington coach Eric Thibault announced that the Mystics would be without starting center Shakira Austin for the remainder of the season. Austin averaged 11.8 points and 6.8 rebounds, but only played in 12 games (11 starts) due to hip and ankle injuries.

"Along with medical staff consulting with Shakira, we've made the decision to shut her down for the remainder of the season," Thibault said. "She just needs time to rehab and strengthen that ankle and surrounding area."

New York comes in off an 88-79 home loss to the Lynx. Breanna Stewart had 38 points and 18 rebounds, but Minnesota shot 53.0 percent to keep alive its slim hopes of the top playoff seed.

"We didn't come out with the urgency that I would have liked or would have expected," Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. "The only great thing about it is that hopefully, we meet them again, and it should be fresh, and we can learn a lot from that."

--Field Level Media