Sonia

Citron

While her team struggled, Bueckers had an exceptional rookie campaign. The Wings guard averaged 19.2 points, 5.4 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game while shooting 47.4 percent from the field and 88.8 percent from the foul line. Bueckers, who led all rookies in points and assists (totals and averages), was named an All-Star Game starter and won three WNBA Rookie of the Month awards. She received 70 of the 72 first-place votes, with Washington’s Sonia Citron receiving the other two. Bueckers is the third Rookie of the Year winner in Shock/Wings franchise history, with Cheryl Ford winning in 2003 and Allisha Gray in 2017.

Citron capped her rookie campaign with another solid stat line and should be one of the top vote-getters for Rookie of the Year. Despite the Mystics missing out on the postseason, the franchise has identified two critical building blocks for the future in Citron and fellow rookie Kiki Iriafen. The former Notre Dame guard played in all 44 games, reaching double figures in scoring in 38. A late-round pick in most fantasy drafts before this season began, Citron should be a popular option in 2026.

The home portion of Washington’s 2025 schedule ended disappointingly, but the franchise has two excellent building blocks in rookies Citron and Kiki Iriafen. The former made some history on Sunday, breaking Brittney Skykes’ Mystics’ single-season scoring record. However, it should be noted that Citron played three more games than Sykes did in 2023, as the WNBA schedule expanded from 40 to 44 games with the addition of Golden State. Asterisk or not, this has been an excellent debut season for the Mystics guard, who has firmly established herself as a key cog in the franchise’s rebuild.

Iriafen finished Thursday’s defeat with her 16th double-double and second in as many games. While the Mystics have lost eight straight, their rookie forward has recorded five double-doubles during this stretch. The decision to trade Brittney Sykes at the August deadline effectively ended Washington’s postseason hopes, but the rookie campaigns put forth by Iriafen and Sonia Citron (7/4/1/1/1 with one three-pointer in 31 minutes) give the franchise hope for the future.

Citron was clearly at the top of the Sparks’ scouting report as Kelsey Plum used a lot of her energy throughout the game to deny Citron the ball and chase her around the the quarter court. Citron didn’t make a shot until 35 seconds were left in the first half. Teammate Lucy Olsen found Citron cutting off the ball with Sparks wing Rae Burrell struggling to stay in front of the rookie while Plum was guarding the point of attack. Citron scored nine of her 12 points in the second half and all of her makes were on three-pointers. Sug Sutton, Stefanie Dolson and Jade Melbourne found Citron for her trio of three-pointers in the second half including one with 1.3 seconds left in regulation to trim the Sparks’ final point margin to just three points.

Among rookies, one can argue that only Dallas’ Paige Bueckers has been better than Citron this season. Her play is one reason why Washington still harbored hopes of reaching the postseason, with Saturday’s defeat officially eliminating the team from postseason contention. Given her youth, Citron’s playing should be safe for the rest of the season, which would be good news for those with the rookie on their fantasy rosters. And Washington has one more game this week, as they are visiting the Sparks on Sunday.

Citron started strong on Thursday by scoring 15 points in the first half on efficient shooting. Yet, the rookie guard tallied only one more made field goal the rest of the way, which came late in the fourth quarter. Still, she finished as the team’s leading scorer and was responsible for 80.0 percent of Washington’s three-point production. The Mystics have now lost five straight games and are in danger of being eliminated from playoff contention. Nonetheless, Citron will continue to be relied upon down the stretch of her rookie season to produce.

Citron continues to make Mystics franchise history. On Sunday she scored in double figures once again, which brings her streak to 15 straight games scoring 10 or more points. She tied league legend Chamique Holdsclaw’s previous rookie streak and Citron is one game shy of trying Nikki McCray for the longest double figure scoring streak for a Mystics rookie ever. This was Citron’s 33rd overall double-digit scoring outing. She just tied Seimone Augustus and A’ja Wilson for the second-most double-digit scoring games for a rookie in WNBA history. In addition to her scoring, Citron had a two-way game on Sunday. She was primarily defending former teammate Brittney Sykes, and she held her to 10 points on 30 percent shooting. Citron also added four steals, which matched her season high.

The rookie guard finished as one of three Mystics to score in double figures on Saturday, and she accomplished such while being limited to seven field goal attempts. Citron’s production almost came entirely from beyond the arc, with the exception being a single free-throw attempt and conversion. She didn’t leave her mark as neither a playmaker nor a rebounder, and ultimately logged an unspectacular performance from a fantasy basketball standpoint. Still, she’ll have a chance to land greater production on Sunday against the Storm in what will be another important matchup for the Mystics as far as playoff positioning in concerned.

Sheldon will miss a fifth straight game due to a sprained right ankle suffered during an August 13 loss to Golden State. Mystics coach Sydney Johnson said Thursday that the guard still has not reached the point where she’s doing 3-on-3 work, which may not be the best sign regarding how close Sheldon is to a return. Starters Sug Sutton and Sonia Citron continue to approach, if not exceed, 30 minutes on a nightly basis, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.