Benched.

This afternoon, on national television, the Mystics faced the Connecticut Sun at the Casino in the Sun's final regular season game. Having already locked up second place in the East, and with the playoffs starting next week, Connecticut Coach Mike Thibault parked his two stars -- and MVP candidates -- Lindsay Whalen and Asjha Jones safely on the sidelines . . . in streetclothes. Which means that the Mystics were, more or less, playing the Sun's bench. But despite that advantage, the Mystics were still unable to leave Mohegan with a win. Final score: Connecticut 87, Washington 81.

The Mystics, with only 7 assisted baskets (to the Sun's 17), lacked good, crisp ball movement, and at times appeared unsure as to what exactly they were supposed to be doing. At one point, the TV announcers commented that no matter which Mystics player had the ball, she looked over to Coach Kenlaw for instructions. If the Sun hadn't sent the Mystics to the foul line for 29 shots (of which the Mystics made a very impressive 25), who knows what the final score would have been!

Today's loss was the 8th in a row for the Mystics, by far the longest current losing streak in the WNBA. The team comes home tomorrow for its last game of the season, a 4 PM contest against the Minnesota Lynx. The Lynx will also be without two of their stars, Seimone Augustus and Candice Wiggins. Let's hope the Mystics can do a better job tomorrow on the power play than they were able to this afternoon.

As fans, the BasketCases feel sad for the Mystics players; it's got to be very discouraging for them as the losses mount up. We really really hope they can close out their season on a slightly higher note. Tomorrow is also Fan Appreciation Day at the Phone Booth. As fans, we too have been feeling pretty discouraged. So we want the same thing for ourselves as we want for the players. More than $1 hot dogs -- more than anything -- what would really make our day is for the Mystics to wrap up the season with a win.