The Mystics won a should-win, must-win, not-that-hard-to-win game against lowly Chicago. Stacey Dales tallied 18 against a team she quit basketball rather than continuing to play on.

Alana, for that very team, had 26. "I can't remember the last time we played like this, when we made the game beautiful," she said. Coach Adubato already has playoff plans; DeLisha Milton says, quite rightly, that nobody should take anything for granted.