Playing for . . .

Tuesday night in Chicago the Mystics take on the Sky, in a "battle" between two of the East's three teams failing to make the playoffs this season. The other is the expansion Nightmare Dream, whose place at the bottom of the Conference (not to mention the league) is secure. However, the Mystics and the Sky are still playing for 5th place in the East (and a certain intangible). Of course, the cynics among us would observe that finishing 6th in the Conference would likely get the loser more ping pong balls in the WNBA draft lottery. But some things are more important than ping pong. Hint: 5 letters, starts with "P".

The game tips off at 8 PM EDT. It's not being televised or webcast, which once again leaves us with Frank "Woman to Woman D" Hanrahan's audio cast on WNBA.com.

Tuesday Morning Update: On the front page of today's Washington Post Sports Section, Kathy Orton has a long, interesting feature about Mystics owner Sheila Johnson and her bumpy ride. Link here.