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Mystics-Dream Preview

Aug 21, 2010 - 3:38 PM By ANDY LEFKOWITZ STATS Editor

Washington (21-12) at Atlanta (19-14), 3:00 p.m. EDT

The Washington Mystics are in position to make history. All that is standing in their way is the slumping Atlanta Dream.

Washington can head into the playoffs for the first time as Eastern Conference champions with a win over postseason-bound Atlanta on the final day of the regular season Sunday afternoon.

The Mystics are coming off a 75-74 win over New York on Friday as Lindsey Harding hit the go-ahead layup with 8.8 seconds to play. That ended the Liberty's 10-game winning streak and pushed Washington (21-12) into a tie with New York and Indiana for the conference lead.

New York faces Connecticut and Indiana - which finished atop the East last year - meets Minnesota later Sunday. Washington won the season series over the Liberty and holds the tiebreaker over the Fever.

"It's crazy how the East is," Mystics forward Crystal Langhorne said. "We're just going to keep fighting. We have another game against Atlanta and we just want to take care of business on Sunday."

The Mystics, who have never finished higher than third, can clinch home-court advantage with a victory at Philips Arena. Washington has taken two straight from the Dream after losing in overtime June 5.

Langhorne would like to come up with another big game against Atlanta. In three matchups, she is averaging 20.7 points and 11.7 rebounds.

Atlanta (19-14), which is locked in as the fourth seed in the East, will be returning to the playoffs for the second straight year and could face Washington in the semifinals starting Wednesday.

However, the Dream have dropped five of six, falling 84-79 to Chicago on Tuesday. Atlanta is 10-6 at home with half of those losses coming against the Sky, who are out of the playoff mix.

"We just didn't have it," coach Marynell Meadors said. "We didn't run our offense. Just a lack of focus, for whatever reason. We should be building momentum going into the playoffs."

Iziane Castro Marques led Atlanta with 19 points, while Angel McCoughtry added 16 and Yelena Leuchanka came off the bench to pull down 11 rebounds.

Like Langhorne for Washington, McCoughtry is looking to continue her solid play in these matchups. The 2009 rookie of the year averaged 25.3 points in three games against the Mystics this season.

McCoughtry is third in the WNBA with 21.2 points per game.