Are Made of This. The players and their fans can rest easy tonight, as the Mystics defeated the Atlanta Dream (in the first ever meeting of these two teams), 80-74. After an 0-2 start to the season, the Mystics have now evened their record at 2-2 and put to sleep any thoughts of last season's nightmareish 0-8 opening.

At the end of the first half tonight, though, we couldn't be quite sure how this one would end. The Mystics came out strong, then gave up the lead before the end of the first quarter, struggled in the second period, and went into the locker room down 7. But they regrouped during the break, surged ahead by the end of the third quarter and (despite a late charge by Atlanta) never relinquished the lead. Not the dominating performance against an 0-3 expansion team that we'd hoped for, but a win nevertheless.

In stark contrast to Sunday's game, the Mystics' starters provided the bulk of point-production, with four starters finishing in double figures. The Dream's Annie Betty Lennox led all scorers with 29 points, and hit 6 of 7 from outside the arc! But 25 points (and 5 assists) from Alana, 19 points (and 9 boards) from Taj, 14 points from Mo-C and 11 points (and 8 rbs) from Nakia countered Lennox's performance . . . and then some. Though the Mystics' fifth starter, Amber Jacobs, didn't get on the scoreboard, the BasketCases thought she gave the team some good minutes (18 to be exact), dishing out 3 assists vs only 1 turnover, as she replaced the injured Nikki Blue as the starting PG.

Fortunately, the Mystics now have a few days for practice and preparation before hosting league-leading Los Angeles (Candace Parker and Lisa Leslie Los Angeles? Yep, that's the one!) on Saturday in a nationally-televised game (on ABC) tipping off at 3:30 PM. And now . . .

The Charm Factor. A Tuesday after a holiday weekend is not a night we expected the front office to pull out all stops or to treat the fans to A-list entertainment. And we got about what we expected. A good (but not great) National Anthem by Anami Jordan, no pyro or lasers, the usual time-out activities, a half-time slam-dunking demo by the world's ugliest bunny (aka "Lucky") . . . in other words, predictable, distracting, but no "Wow." Normally, we would rate the in-arena experience of a game like tonight's a 2 Bunny evening, but -- just as we assess automatic deductions, to be fair, we also sometimes make automatic additions! Tonight is one of those nights, thanks to GM Linda Hargrove, whose "Chalk Talk" prior to the game provided interested season ticketholders with her usual frank and informative insights into the team and the opponent. We've decided that Linda's "Talk" deserves an extra bunny! So tonight's score is:

Three Bunnies!