The Youngest Team in WNBA History Just Beat the No. 1 Team in the League
The Washington Mystics, the youngest roster in WNBA history, went into Target Center and beat the 13-4 Minnesota Lynx on the road. Three straight wins. All three away from home. It's time to pay attention.
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Lynx came into Sunday at 13-4, the best record in the Western Conference. They were at home. They were favored.
Washington won anyway.
The Mystics beat Minnesota 84-79 at Target Center, and in doing so completed a three-game winning streak that now includes the Connecticut Sun, the New York Liberty and the best team in the West, all in eight days. It is the first time Washington has won three straight since July 2025. It is also the kind of week that changes the conversation around a team.
The Mystics entered 2026 carrying questions about their consistency. They were young, they had stretches where the offense stalled, and they couldn't hold leads late in the game. None of that showed up Sunday. Washington trailed by seven at halftime, outscored Minnesota 28-19 in the fourth quarter, and held a Lynx offense that had been rolling all season to 79 points on a night the home crowd expected something comfortable.
This is the 13th time this season Washington has out rebounded their opponent, tied with Atlanta for the most such occurrences in the WNBA. That number matters because it points to something structural. The Mystics win the possession battle before they win the game, and Sunday was the clearest proof yet that the formula travels.
Sonia Citron led Washington with 21 points on 13 field goal attempts, her fifth 20-point game of the season. She leads the entire WNBA with four games this year scoring 20 or more points while taking no more than 13 shots. That distinction separates a high-usage scorer from one who is genuinely difficult to scheme against, and Minnesota had no answer for her in the moments that decided the game. Washington is 7-1 when Citron takes 10 shots or fewer.
Kiki Iriafen added 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting with seven rebounds, her fifth 15-point, five-rebound performance of the season, and hit the go-ahead basket with 1:04 remaining. Off the bench, Cotie McMahon finished with a career-high 15 points and five assists, shooting 4-for-4 from three. The rookie has now given Washington real production in back-to-back games, and the kind of line she posted Sunday tends to change how a coaching staff thinks about rotations going forward.
What makes this winning streak significant is not just the results. It is the opponents and the settings. The Sun game was on the road. The Liberty game was on the road in a nationally televised anniversary matchup. Sunday was in one of the harder buildings in the conference against a team that had lost four times all season. Washington handled all three differently and won all three the same way: outwork the opponent on the boards, move the ball, get to the line.
The Mystics are 8-7. They are the youngest roster in WNBA history, with 11 players either rookies or in their second season. Most of their close games this season have been decided by one possession.
But a team that goes into Target Center against the Western Conference leader, trails at halftime, and wins on the road with a 22-year-old leading scorer, a rookie off the bench putting up career numbers, and a rebounding identity that holds in hostile environments, is not a team you watch cautiously anymore.
They are a team you start to take seriously.