Locked on Women’s Basketball: Can Washington Mystics large (Elena Delle Donne) and small (Rui Machida) win it all?

It’s time for another episode of the Locked on Women’s Basketball podcast. This episode features host Howard Megdal and The Next‘s managing editor and Washington Mystics beat reporter Jenn Hatfield joining the pod to discuss Elena Delle Donne‘s continued ability to overcome her back injuries and the impact Rui Machida is having in her first season in DC.

Jenn talks about the inconsistency Washington is having as of late:

“They’ve been a little bit up and down in their past couple of games. They just got a big win over Minnesota, but they lost to Phoenix and they beat LA before that. So they’ve been a little bit inconsistent. But this is kind of the stretch run of their season. And they’re looking at it as an opportunity for them, with a lot of home games left on their schedule and a lot of practice time compared to the first half of the season. So the hope is that it will be a very consistent upward trajectory from here to the playoffs.”

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Jenn talks about whether Washington is among the top five teams in the WNBA:

“I do. I think there’s a pretty big gap in the standings — I haven’t looked at it today after the midday game, but there is a decent-sized gap that they’ve carved out … between fifth and sixth in the standings. So you can look at it that way. And then there’s also the factor that, no matter what you think right now, they’re going to have a big opportunity to prove whether they are or are not in that tier because they have four games straight against [the top four] — two against Seattle, one against Vegas and one against Chicago — coming up at the end of the month.”

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