Updated Sep 12, 2015 at 2:53p ET
The Washington Mystics will try to take some momentum into the playoffs by avoiding a season sweep to an Atlanta Dream team that's heading home after this matchup Sunday.
Washington (18-15) has dropped all three meetings this season with Atlanta, including a 73-67 defeat last Sunday, and eight of 10 since the beginning of the 2013 playoffs.
The Dream (14-19) wish they could have fared as well against other opponents as they are set to miss the postseason for the first time since their inaugural 2008 campaign.
The first two matchups were decided by three points apiece. Atlanta star Angel McCoughtry scored five of her 21 points in the final 28 seconds in the only other game in Washington, a 64-61 victory June 12.
A win would give the Mystics the No. 3 seed for the Eastern Conference playoffs if Indiana loses to New York on Sunday. Washington would face Chicago in the opening round if that happens and would get league-best New York if it doesn't.
A series against the Sky would begin Thursday and a series against the Liberty would start Friday.
Washington enters this game having earned back-to-back wins after Friday's 82-55 rout of New York, which played its starters sparingly to rest up for the postseason.
Atlanta also had won two straight before losing 75-67 to Indiana on Friday. McCoughtry came off the bench for a fifth straight game and was held to 11 points on 4-of-12 shooting after averaging 24.8 points in the previous four.
Sancho Lyttle tied a season high with 19 points and had eight rebounds. She's averaging 16.3 points on 56.8 percent shooting and 9.7 boards in the past three games.
Lyttle had 16 points and 10 rebounds in the win over Washington last weekend. Tiffany Hayes (19 points) and McCoughtry (18) were the Dream's scoring leaders.
Ivory Latta scored 22 for the Mystics, giving her a combined 40 in the past two meetings with Atlanta, and she's made 14 of 25 shots in those matchups.
Atlanta forward DeLisha Milton-Jones would become the league's first player to appear in 500 games if she returns from a concussion that's kept her out of the past three. Milton-Jones, who turned 41 on Friday, broke Tina Thompson's WNBA record Aug. 28.
Read more