Chicago (9-17) at Washington (10-16)

The Olympic break wasn’t a quiet one for the Washington Mystics.

The struggling Mystics look to respond to some criticism from ownership when they resume play Friday night against the Chicago Sky.

Washington (10-16) sits in fifth place in the East, 1 1/2 games behind Indiana for the conference’s final playoff spot. It’s been a difficult season for the Mystics, though, as coach Tree Rollins was fired July 19 and replaced on an interim basis by Jessie Kenlaw, who became the franchise’s 10th coach in 11 seasons.

Exactly a month later in the middle of the Olympic break, team president Sheila Johnson - also a part-owner - took the unusual step of blasting her team in a conference call.

“We cannot continue on this path,” Johnson said. “The Mystics have not moved one ounce in their 11-year history, and we’ve got to start making some changes. It is the only way this team is going to survive.”

The conference call was prompted by the trade of popular veteran Taj McWilliams-Franklin to Los Angeles that same day - Aug. 19. Johnson compared the trade to the Dallas Cowboys’ decision to trade Herschel Walker in 1989, part of a rebuilding plan that eventually led to three Super Bowl titles.

“Our issue has not been lack of effort. It has been lack of talent,” Johnson said. “This is pro basketball, and good coaching and gutty performances can only take a team so far. The Mystics need athletes and we need scorers and we need a roster of young ladies whose collective physical skills make other teams in the league dread the thought of playing us.”

Washington ranks last in the league in scoring at 69.3 points per game. The Mystics, who have split four games under Kenlaw, defeated the Sky (9-17) 64-57 under Rollins on June 13 - the teams’ only prior meeting this season.

Chicago is also in rebuilding mode, but the third-year franchise seems to have more pieces in place despite being in sixth place in the East. Its major building block is rookie center Sylvia Fowles, who helped the United States win gold in the Beijing Olympics on Saturday

Fowles, who had missed 20 WNBA games due to a left knee sprain, returned in a 69-60 win at New York on Thursday. She had 10 points and 10 rebounds for her third double-double in her last nine games.

“I was a little tired in the first half and couldn’t get in the groove,” said a fatigued Fowles. “I got going after my first shot in the second half. That’s when everything got flowing for me.”