The WNBA showdown Friday between the league’s best team so far, the Minnesota Lynx, and the streaking Washington Mystics might lose a bit of its luster, with the Mystics announcing Thursday night that Elena Delle Donne is questionable for Friday’s game with a left groin strain.
Delle Donne, the league’s fourth-leading scorer, has played every game so far for the Mystics, and sits fourth in the league in scoring at 20.9 points per game, with a player efficiency rating ahead of all but her 2015 MVP campaigns among her WNBA seasons.
She’s also contributed in a variety of ways, including a career-high 15 rebounds in Sunday’s victory over the Atlanta Dream, and a 3.9 block percentage, good for seventh in the league among players with at least 20 minutes played per contest.
Defeating the Lynx is a task accomplished by no one so far this year, but the chance to see the league’s two best rebounding teams, the best defensive team in Minnesota, the second-best offensive team in Washington, felt like the game of the year.
Should Delle Donne miss Friday night’s contest, especially with the Mystics also missing Emma Meesseman due to overseas commitments, the task of defeating Sylvia Fowles, Maya Moore and the Lynx would get that much tougher.