Three Takeaways: With Elena Delle Donne back, the Mystics destroy the Fever

WASHINGTON, D.C– After the Washington Mystics suffered an embarrassing 25-point loss to the Minnesota Lynx on Friday night, Coach Mike Thibault stressed the importance of the team bouncing back quickly on Sunday afternoon against the Indiana Fever.

Mission accomplished.

The Mystics beat the Fever 88-68 in front of the Verizon Center crowd, and really, this one was never in doubt after the Mystics went on an absolute tear in the second half of the first quarter. After 10 minutes, the score was 29-12.

The big difference for the Mystics was the return of Elena Delle Donne, who missed Friday’s game due to an injury, but looked like she was back to full strength less than 48 hours later. The Mystics are now 7-3 on the season, and have won six of their last seven games.

The Fever, meanwhile, fell to 4-6 on the year, and played their second straight game without Briann January, who suffered a strained Achilles in the opening minutes of a game against the Phoenix Mercury last Wednesday.

Delle Donne’s importance to the Mystics cannot be overstated

In her return to the floor, the 2015 MVP had 25 points and seven rebounds, going 9-for-15 from the field.

With this performance, Delle Donne surpassed the 750 mark for rebounds in her WNBA career, an announcement that quite excited the Mystics crowd.

Delle Donne looked to be fully recovered from the groin injury that kept her sidelined on Friday, but she still only played 25 minutes and spent most of the fourth quarter on the bench, which is smart considering the Washington lead was never really in jeopardy.

Delle Donne really opens up things for the rest of her teammates, too. Krystal Thomas had 14 points; Tayler Hill had an off night shooting, going only 2-for-8, but still came away with 12 points; Kristi Toliver had nine points, all from deep, and Ivory Latta once again scored in double figures from the bench, with 12.

Krystal Thomas has found her rhythm

Thomas was absolutely destroyed on Friday against the Lynx, but without Sylvia Fowles and Rebekkah Brunson to contend with, Thomas bounced back strong on Sunday, with 14 points and 14 rebounds, both season highs. This was her first double-double of 2017.

This was Thomas’s fifth straight start for the  Mystics in the absence of Emma Meesseman, who is in Belgium with the national team. It’s hard to believe that the last time that Thomas started five games in the WNBA was in 2012, when she started 25 games with the Phoenix Mercury. Beyond that, she’s only started three games in two other seasons, 2013 with the Mercury and 2014 with the Fever.

Thomas’s confidence has grown every game so far, and while a game like the one against the Lynx could have thwarted all of that momentum, it seems to have done just the opposite. She wasn’t just a disruptive presence inside; she was a dominant one.

While Delle Donne is the clear star of the team, Thomas is the surprise, and she”s a huge reason why the Mystics have hardly missed a beat this month without Meesseman.

The Fever are struggling massively outside the paint

The Mystics only outscored the Fever in the paint by two, 34-32, but the Fever had eight fewer three-pointers than the Mystics, and went a mere 1-for-10 from beyond the arch. (Tiffany Mitchell accounted for the lone three.)

There is simply no way to keep up with any team in today’s WNBA without having an outside game.

While this was a particularly bad game from outside the paint for the Fever, this is something they’ve been struggling with all year long. For the season, the Fever are only 29.7 percent from beyond three-point range, which is second to last in the league, and they’re dead last in three-point attempts. Per game, they average 3.6 three pointers, which is only better than one team, the Atlanta Dream.

Erica Wheeler led the Fever with 15 points, Candace Dupree had 14, and Jazmon Gwathmey came off the bench for 10.