The Mystics’ sloppy showing leaves them with their most lopsided loss of the season

By Kareem Copeland,

Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.

That sums up the Washington Mystics’ efforts Sunday as they were blown out, 101-78, by the Atlanta Dream in College Park, Ga.

The 101 points are the most Washington has allowed this season, and the 23-point margin of defeat is its largest of the year. On top of that, the Mystics (4-6) turned the ball over a season-high 17 times, leading to 27 points for the Dream. Twenty-one of those points came in the first half.

The Dream (5-6), which entered on a four-game losing streak, did all of that without 2020 all-rookie team member Chennedy Carter (elbow). This was a Commissioner’s Cup game, and the Mystics fell to 1-4 in the standings for the midseason tournament.

Coach Mike Thibault said the Mystics’ focus entering the game was on taking care of the ball and not fouling — and they didn’t do either of those things very well.

“Their traps bothered us . . . so I thought we got sped up,” Thibault said. “They attacked us, and we made mistakes defensively. They made a really concerted effort to trap Ariel [Atkins] and Tina [Charles] every time they touched it and make somebody else beat them, and we weren’t able to do that.”

[The Mystics’ Ariel Atkins has taken her game to another level, and all-star buzz has followed]

The Mystics fell apart after a solid first quarter. Washington led by 11 with 7:13 left in the second but was outplayed in every facet from that point on.

Courtney Williams scored a game-high 21 points and made four three-pointers for the Dream. Odyssey Sims scored a season-high 20 points, and Tiffany Hayes added 18. Cheyenne Parker chipped in 11 points, and former Mystics forward Tianna Hawkins had 10 off the bench.

The Dream made 13 of 29 three-point attempts (44.8 percent) and shot 50.7 percent from the field overall after making just 35.0 percent of its tries in the first quarter.

“They shot the hell out of it,” Thibault said. “They never make that many threes, but they all made them today. . . . They played with confidence. You could see it in their body language in the middle of the second quarter. They were down there dancing. They were excited. And we had this look on our face when we had a lead and just gave it away in no time. Panic’s not the right word, but it certainly sped us up a little bit.”

The Mystics’ Myisha Hines-Allen had 16 points and six rebounds, and Atkins added 15 points on 4-for-11 shooting. Charles, the WNBA’s leading scorer, was held to a season-low 13 points on 5-for-17 shooting as the Mystics shot just 37.7 percent.

Point guard Natasha Cloud aggravated a hip flexor injury and will be reevaluated; she exited late in the third quarter after scoring three points in 25 minutes. Sydney Wiese (ankle) missed her fourth consecutive game, but Thibault is optimistic about having her back Thursday for a rematch with the Dream at Entertainment and Sports Arena.

[Last time out: Mystics dance their way to an 89-71 win behind Ariel Atkins and Tina Charles]

“They do a great job of speeding teams up,” Hines-Allen said. “We weren’t able to handle it. Credit to them, but now we see we have to play at our own pace and we have to dictate where we want to throw the ball. We can’t have other teams forcing us into passes that we’re not normally [making]. This all falls back on us, our team. It’s nothing they really did. It was us not sticking to the game plan and not executing.”

Following their horrific second quarter, the Mystics trailed 51-49 at halftime. It got uglier in the third quarter, when Atlanta used a 20-6 run to blow the doors open. It made four three-pointers in that stretch to extend its lead to 71-57, and the Mystics never recovered.

“Atlanta is a team that relies heavily on their aggressive defensive play and their pressure on the ball,” said Mystics forward Theresa Plaisance, who had 10 points off the bench. “We gave in to that. We didn’t do as well of a job handling their pressure. Today we just came out with less energy than them. We came out flat, and they came out with a bunch of energy, hitting shots and a whole bunch of pressure.”

More from The Post: Novak Djokovic erases two-set deficit to win French Open, claim 19th Grand Slam title Kyle Schwarber’s early blasts and a strong start by Joe Ross give the Nats a series split You really should be in Salt Lake City. It’s cool. Really.