The Mystics knew they would be in for a long season when their superstar, Elena Delle Donne, decided not to play this season. But it's been worse than even the lowest expectations as Washington is the lone winless team in the WNBA with a 0-10 record.

Washington was competitive in some of its early games this season. However, the Mystics have lost their past three games by an average of 12 points. Morale is low and Washington has been without its best frontcourt player, center Shakira Austin, and top all-around guard, Brittney Sykes. Austin is questionable with a hip injury while Sykes continues to be sidelined by an ankle injury.

The key question here is can the Fever, which is 2-9, beat the Mystics on the road? I am not a fan of Indiana coach Christie Sides. But the Fever has the two best players on the court in Caitlin Clark and center Aliyah Boston. The Fever finally gets a situational break, too, in this matchup.

Indiana has been idle since Sunday. The Fever had the most arduous schedule in the league playing six games in 10 days and four in six days. They still managed to beat the Sparks on the road and Sky at home. But they wore down in their last game in a blowout loss to the Liberty. That was five days ago.

Now the well-rested Fever catch the Mystics playing for the third time in four days and without rest following their 79-71 home loss to the Sky Thursday night.

Washington obviously isn't going to do anything this season. The Fever, though, are in must-win mode. Clark has made them the showcase team in the league. The league wants them to do well. Clark could be in line to expect more calls than she has been getting following extensive social media scrutiny about opponents taking cheap shots against her.