Just seven weeks after giving birth to daughter Lailaa, reigning league most valuable player Candace Parker will make her return to the Los Angeles Sparks' lineup Sunday night against the Phoenix Mercury. The 9:30 p.m. game can be seen on NBA TV and through WNBA.com's Live Access.

She was cleared by her doctor to begin practicing with team last week and plans to see limited minutes off the bench.

Her return comes in the Sparks' only home game this month, the team begins a seven-game road trip on Thursday.

For more on Parker's return, check out this L.A. Times feature story.

Washington has now dropped three of its past four contests as Atlanta forwards Chamique Holdsclaw and Sancho Lyttle combined for 34 points to lead the Dream in their second consecutive win over the Mystics.

If you haven't already check out the full box score and The Associated Press recap. Here are a few notable nuggets.

*The Mystics committed an astounding 28 turnovers and came up with just nine steals in the loss. Atlanta finished with 18 turnovers and 17 steals.

*Washington missed its first nine 3-point attempts before Matee Ajavon finally broke the streak with two successful shots from behind the arc in the fourth quarter.

*Nakia Sanford and Chasity Melvin combined for 12 points but held their own on the glass with eight and nine rebounds, respectively. The Mystics out-rebounded the Dream 40-29.

Here's your game day post a day early. This game might be a prime opportunity for the Mystics to exorcise some of the demons that have plagued them randomly early on in the season. Philips Arena is the site of their first loss of the year, which was an out-of-focus performance that reminded a few too many people of games a season ago.

Tipoff: 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, Philips Arena
Stream the game online via LiveAccess by going here and downloading the plugin for Windows or Mac.

Alana Beard knocked down a 16-foot jumper with 1.9 seconds remaining Tuesday night to down the San Antonio Silver Stars and snap Washington's two-game losing streak.

Beard and Lindsey Harding led the visiting Mystics with 19 points apiece.

Sophia Young paced the Silver Stars with a game-high 21 points, while teammate Becky Hammon added 18.

In addition to today's story about Mystics point guard Lindsey Harding, here are a few leftovers from the conversations I had with and about the third-year pro.

Harding on her reaction to being traded to Washington, and getting to play for Coach Julie Plank:

"I was definitely really excited because I knew Julie, knew her style and knew that I'd have a little more freedom to play my game. She was a guards coach in Minnesota, so I spent a lot of time after practice shooting with her, working with her and I had a good relationship with her. She loved my style of play. We just understood the game the same way. I understood the game the way she did."

If she was surprised at Minnesota's decision to move her after last year's 16-18 season:

"Yes and no. If you think about it you knew that they needed to make some changes. We started off really well and then we went downhill. It wasn't any shock that they were going to make some changes we just didn't know who."

Washington won't have it easy as it tries to avoid dropping its third-straight contest to stop the slide to a .500 record tonight in San Antonio. Reeling from a 68-63 loss to Chicago this past Friday, the Mystics need to find some consistency. They established an initial advantage against the Sky, solving the slow start problem they had in previous games, but they wound up clinging to a precarious lead and struggled to fully seize control of the game.

Tipoff: 8 p.m., AT&T Center
There is no television broadcast for this game and there is also no LiveAccess as the Silver Stars opted to not participate in the program.

In hindsight, one of the most significant moves made by the Mystics new brain trust of GM Angela Taylor and Coach Julie Plank leading up to the 2009 season was trading for point guard Lindsey Harding.

Here's an early look at my story for tomorrow's paper about Harding:

When she took the job as coach of the Washington Mystics in November, Julie Plank knew one of the first things she needed was an experienced point guard. She wanted someone who saw the game the same way she did, who could set an example of the work ethic she would demand and whom she could trust completely to run the show. As Plank considered the traits, one name immediately popped into her mind.

Plank had grown familiar with Lindsey Harding during the 2008 season, while serving as a guards coach for the Minnesota Lynx. Harding was a true point guard with a confident swagger and defensive mind-set, and there was a chance that Minnesota might be willing to deal the former first-overall draft pick in its latest rebuilding effort.

"I always had my eye on her," Plank said. "I loved coaching her and knew she could really help us in Washington. If there was an opportunity to get her, we had to get her."

By late January, Plank's wish was granted. Washington traded first- and second-round selections in the 2009 entry draft to Minnesota for Harding. The Mystics' brass wagered that Harding could create a stable presence at point guard, although questions remained about her durability after she missed the 2007 season with a knee injury.

Click here to read the rest.

The Chicago Sky used a solid fourth-quarter push and big games from stars Candice Dupree and Sylvia Fowles to down the Mystics, 68-63, Saturday night at UIC Pavillion.

The loss was Washington's second straight and its third in the past four games.

Chicago's Dupree scored a game-high 23 points while Fowles notched a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Lindsey Harding led the Mystics (4-3) with 15 points, Alana Beard added 14 and second-year center Crystal Langhorne notched another strong performance with 12 points and eight rebounds.

The Mystics have proven -- quite a few times now -- that they can challenge almost any opponent to a tight game that goes down to the final buzzer. While it makes for exciting basketball, it isn't always the situation they'd like to have. Slow starts are becoming a concern, and the Mystics need to start taking control of their fate from the get-go rather than wait until they're backed into a corner.

Tipoff: 8 p.m., UIC Pavilion
Stream the game online via LiveAccess by going here and downloading the plugin for Windows or Mac.

For the third straight game the Mystics got off to a slow start, playing at an uncharacteristically slow pace, but while they were able to recover from it once again they were never able to throw a wrench in Phoenix's WNBA-leading offense. Sure, they proved they can run-and-gun with the best of them, but that's little consolation when a team that spent the past week emphasizing ways to force the Mercury out of their transition game never succeeded at that goal.

"We didn't get stops at crucial times during the game," Alana Beard said. "I thought we did a great job of picking up our defense and attacking them just the way they were attacking us, but towards the end we were trading baskets. We couldn't put together three and four stops in a row when we needed that."

The loss is the Mystics' first defeat at home in Verizon Center, which housed a reported 9,808 spectators last night.

Washington faces its first significant test as a defense-first team when they take on the high-flying Mercury tonight. These two teams usually make for some exciting match-ups, but right now there are a lot of questions percolating. Such as: Will the Mystics, who regularly like to speed up the tempo, try to slow the pace down to slow Phoenix? Can they be disciplined enough defensively to keep the Mercury under wraps for an entire game? Will Washington come out for its first fast start in three games?

Tipoff: 7 p.m., Verizon Center
Stream the game online via LiveAccess by going here and downloading the plugin for Windows or Mac.