Results tagged “basketball>”

              

It looked more like the NHL than basketball, but despite the bumps and bruises on both benches, the Mystics pulled out a must-win over the visiting Atlanta Dream on Saturday. Washington led the entire game and clinched a playoff spot with the 82-64 victory.

Imagine being under .500 and facing down a 19-11 team that you lost to by 10 points a week ago. Their leading scorer is out with an injury -- but so is yours. You're trying to beat a team that's won six straight, while you've gone 2-4.

Sunday's 81-75 victory over the Minnesota Lynx kept the 14-15 Mystics in playoff contention, but the price was high: an injury to All-Star Alana Beard's ankle late in the fourth quarter forced her to the sidelines.

by DCist contributor Elisabeth Meinecke Back in July, Mystics point guard Lindsey Harding was hoping she didn't lead the WNBA in minutes played come September. But nearly one week away, she's topping the league with over 36 minutes per game, an immense average for a player who has battled injuries throughout her professional career.

If you’re a college basketball fan and dying for any sort of action before the season starts in November, then head to McDonough Arena at Georgetown this weekend. The Jabbo Kenner League (PDF), D.C.’s premier summer basketball league, started its playoffs last night and features an array of local players from Division I teams such as Maryland, Georgetown, and Virginia Tech, and even features some professionals thrown in the mix. We checked out some of the games on Wednesday and got to witness not one but three Hoyas in action that evening, in the form of Chris Wright, Jason Clarke, and Henry Sims. Villanova’s Scottie Reynolds and former Terp James Gist were also scheduled to play that evening but both were no-shows, though they might make an appearance this weekend. Admission is free, the atmosphere is intimate, and it's a great chance to get your college b-ball fix in during the off-season. -- Brett Gellman

The Mystics capped a six-game home stand with an 87-73 win over cellar-dwellers Sacramento on Sunday, led by Crystal Langhorne's 19 points and hot three-point shooting by Marissa Coleman and Monique Currie. The Monarchs dropped to 4-15, the worst record in the league, while the Mystics improved to 9-7.

            

Chicago brought two All-Stars and the best three-point shooting percentage in the WNBA to the Verizon Center court last night, but left with an eleven-point loss, 75-64.

The Indiana Fever showed why they're atop the WNBA's Eastern Conference last night at the Verizon Center, beating the Mystics 82-70 in a game that had more full court presses than Brangelina have children.

In front of 12,217 fans at the Phone Booth, the Washington Mystics claimed a 75-63 win against last year's league MVP Candace Parker (in her third game back from her much publicized maternity leave) and the visiting Los Angeles Sparks on Saturday -- a victory which kicked off a six-game home stretch for Washington the right way.

Friends may think Nakia Sanford's job as a professional basketball player is all play and no work, but the WNBA veteran knows better.

A lot of teams use the annual NBA Draft how it's supposed to be used: a way to spruce up rosters by selecting talented young players from various universities and overseas. As a result, teams usually end up with a younger lineup than they had before.

If you get goosebumps watching Ovechkin vs. Crosby, LeBron vs. Kobe, or Tiger Woods vs. everyone else, give this matchup a try: Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury vs. Alana Beard of the Washington Mystics, both first round picks in the 2004 WNBA draft. Taurasi’s Mercury - the highest scoring team in the WNBA - held on in the final seconds of the fourth quarter Thursday to win over the Mystics, 93-87.

After dropping a game for the first time this season Friday against Atlanta, the Washington Mystics pulled out an 81-72 win Saturday over visiting conference rival Chicago Sky. The Mystics’ win improves their record to 4-1 and keeps them in first place in the Eastern Conference.

Worlds collided at last night's SILVERDOCS opening screening and after-party. While someone like Ira Glass might qualify as a mega-star personal appearance for the documentary aficionados that make up the festival's core audience, last night brought star power of a completely different sort, as basketball phenom LeBron James (and entourage) showed up for last night’s screening of More Than a Game. The film documents the domination James and his teammates (collectively, the Fab 5) held over the world of high school basketball in the early '00s. Excited fans lined the red carpet for James' arrival, and the Blair High School marching band even performed inside the theater. After the screening, the band led everyone across the street to the Discovery building for the after-party, at which local rapper Wale performed to a largely dance-resistant crowd. When a DJ later tried to whip the crowd into a party mood by asking if anyone wanted to hear some go-go, he was largely met with blank stares. Not even a choice Backyard Band track could get those bodies moving.

The Washington Mystics may keep D.C. from falling into a serious sports depression this year. The team is off to their best start in franchise history at 2-0, and in a town that currently houses the worst teams in the NBA and MLB, this group of 11 ladies are a welcome exception. The Mystics won their season opener 82-70 Saturday on the road in Connecticut (against a team that finished second in the East Conference last year) and their home opener Sunday against the Atlanta Dream. The final score was 77-71.

The Washington Mystics open their regular season in Connecticut today against The Sun, and play their home opener at the Verizon Center on Sunday at 4 p.m. against the Atlanta Dream.

In an announcement oddly timed with Earth Day, the Washington Mystics today inked a sponsorship deal with ExxonMobil, reports the Washington Business Journal. The massive oil company will now display courtside ads during Mystics games, a move that should place the team right alongside the Nationals as major targets of environmental protesters. Exxon will also become the official sponsor of the Mystics Student of the Week program. The Student of the Week program recognizes female high school students for excellence in math or science.

Yahoo! Sports reports that Flip Saunders, formerly the head coach of the Detroit Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves, will be the next head coach of the Wizards. League sources told Yahoo! Sports that Saunders comes to the team on a four-year, $18 million deal. Saunders -- who has done pretty much everything one can do in terms of coaching professional basketball but win a NBA championship -- will take over the helms after this season is up, an away game from now. Current interim coach Ed Tapscott will likely return to the front office.

You'll forgive us for not congratulating the winner of the 2009 DCist Reader-Staff NCAA Bracketfest contest in a more timely manner, but we've been a little busy licking our wounds. There's just no way to spin the fact that our readers delivered an embarrassing rout of the DCist staff in the standings: the best showing on our end was by Weekend Editor Kriston Capps, who came in a meager 29th overall.

Written by DCist Contributor Brett Gellman. Brett had this post ready much, much earlier today, but we failed to get it posted on time. Apologies all around.

Don't forget to sign up to participate in the 2009 DCist Reader-Staff NCAA Bracketfest! You'll need to fill out your complete brackets before midnight tonight to guarantee your spot in the contest. If you're new to the DCist NCAA pool, you'll have to first create a CBS Sportsline profile (if you've participated before, you already have one). Then access the DCist pool and enter the password ("dcist"), and you're all set to make your selections. Remember, the winner will receive bragging rights, their name posted in bold on this web site, and a special mystery prize!

Not burgers. Not books. Frakkin' en-see-double-A basketball.

While we’re waiting on the outcome of Selection Sunday, one area team will be notably absent from the field of 65.

              

Members of the D.C. Council knocked to the floor while protecting the lane against aggressive offensive moves by much younger journalists. Disputes over fouls and scoring. The District's most even-tempered radio voice handed a technical foul for being a little too lively a coach. Getting driven to to the hole by Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) on your first play in the game. Yes, this was all part of the first ever basketball game between members of the city's legislative body and the journalists who cover them.

DCist's Verizon Center correspondent Martin Austermuhle reports from the front lines of the impending D.C. Council vs. Media Basketball Game. "I'm here with D.C.'s local media luminaries, and they're not letting us in! Scandal!" Thankfully, WTOP's Mark Segraves updates on his Twitter feed that the security issue has been resolved, possibly after intervention by D.C. Council chairman Vince Gray. But Martin's still worried: "With everyone here, who's actually covering the news?" he muses. "Fenty could dump a month's worth of bad news right now." The rest of us DCists will do our best to pick up the slack, but Martin has a point. We're not likely to see much in the afternoon news cycle today, with so many reporters at the game.

Martin already told you all about it, but we wanted to remind all of our readers that tickets are available for this afternoon's D.C. Council vs. Media basketball game, which precedes the annual City Title games. Tip off for the Council vs. Media game is at 4 p.m, with all proceeds benefiting the District of Columbia Interscholastic Athletic Association (DCIAA) and the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC). Duck out of work early and watch DCist's own Martin Austermuhle attempt to strip the ball from Phil Mendelson's mustache. For full team line-ups, click here. And don't miss out on D.C. Wire's preview, featuring video of Team Media's Jonathan O'Connell (Washington Business Journal) looking like a major threat. Go Media!

There's an obvious tension between the media and most elected officials. Journalists are a prying bunch, and even the best of our public servants like to keep things under wraps now and then. In public, things remain somewhat cordial. On the court, all bets are off.

Sure, the Wizards beat the Chicago Bulls on Friday night 113-90 (only to follow it up with a stinker last night in Milwaukee), but this post is less about a twenty-three point victory by a 14-45 team over another sub-.500 team, and more about President Obama, who made the trek over from the White House to catch some Friday night hoops.

The Chicago Bulls visited President Obama at the White House yesterday, and now word is that Obama might show up at the Verizon Center tonight for their game against the Wizards. The rumors are no doubt the greatest thing that will happen to Wizards tickets sales this season; the last place team has had trouble even filling the arena to half-full for the last couple months. Click here to purchase tickets to tonight's game, which starts at 7 p.m. This would be the first Wizards game Obama will have attended since taking office.

WTOP's Mark Segraves has a nice little scoop—apparently President-elect Barack Obama played basketball at the Marie Reed Community Learning Center in Adams Morgan on Sunday. According to his spokesperson, he left the Hay Adams Hotel at 5:15 p.m. and and played basketball for 45 minutes. But wouldn't the center have been closed at that hour? Indeed, but Mayor Adrian Fenty arranged for it to be opened for the president-elect.