WASHINGTON -- In their two-plus seasons of existence in the WNBA, the Utah Starzz have never won three straight games.
They have had three prior chances but went on the road each time and lost by at least nine. With a franchise-best-ever 4-6 record, the Starzz try one more time to say the third time's the charm Thursday at 5 p.m. MDT when they play the 3-8 Washington Mystics at the MCI Center.Utah is brimming with confidence after a record-shattering 104-94 double-overtime win Tuesday night in the Delta Center over Detroit (5-7). It was Utah's first-ever win over Detroit, a 1998 expansion team that was 17-13 last year. It followed Utah's first-ever win Friday over Cleveland, like Utah, a 1997 charter member of the WNBA.
Adding to Starzz confidence is that they beat Washington twice last year, once by 10 at the MCI, and they split a pair of '99 exhibition games with them before getting starters Margo Dydek and Elena Baranova and backup point guard Krystyna Lara from the European Championships. Dydek scored 15 and had 16 rebounds and Baranova added 14 points and five rebounds on Tuesday.
Washington is also on a high after defeating Eastern Conference leader New York 71-63 at the MCI Tuesday and having won two of its last three games. Their three wins already match the franchise season-best. The Mystics, too, have a slightly different look than when Utah saw them in the preseason. On July 1, they signed two-time former ABL Championships MVP Valerie Still, a 6-foot-8 38-year-old recovering from winter ACL surgery.
She played eight minutes against New York and had two rebounds.
Still is a quality player who charged loudly this spring that the WNBA "blackballed" her for its April free-agent draft because she was highly outspoken the past two years about the WNBA, its quality and methods. She later criticized ABL Columbus Quest coach Brian Agler for jumping to the WNBA and for coaching Columbus after he had already been named coach of the WNBA expansion Minnesota Lynx. She also criticized former Quest teammate Nikki McCray, who left the ABL for the WNBA in spring '98 and is now her teammate with the Mystics.
Still was invited to the Chicago free-agent camp but couldn't participate because of the surgery and went undrafted and turned down Cleveland's free-agent offer.
On a happier note for Washington, No. 1 draft choice Chamique Holdsclaw was named WNBA Player of the Week for efforts last week when she averaged 21.5 points, 11.5 rebounds and 5.5 assists in two games. She made 55 percent of her field goals and 92 percent of her free throws and had 1.5 blocks a game.
Utah's Natalie Williams started the week third in league scoring with 19.8 a game but scored 31 Tuesday, and second in league rebounding at 10.5 with 10 Tuesday. The rookie, Holdsclaw, is fifth in scoring at 17.9 and third in boards at 8.6. She had 14 points, seven rebounds Tuesday.
Utah continues its short Eastern swing Saturday at 5 p.m. MDT at the expansion Orlando Miracle, at 5-4 second in the East but a team Utah beat in the season opener in the Delta Center.