​On Tuesday evening, the Washington Mystics will visit the Toronto Tempo for the third of four matchups between the teams this season (7 p.m. ET, NBA TV).And while it might be an overstatement to claim that these two squads are rivals, they are quite intertwined, a somewhat curious circumstance considering this is Toronto’s first season on the WNBA scene.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThe Tempo’s first-ever game came against the Mystics, when Washington secured an opening night win in Toronto by three points thanks to four clutch free throws from Shakira Austin. The second game, held in DC, offered up an even more dramatic ending, as Lauren Betts tipped a jump ball to Sonia Citron for the game-winning jumper as the buzzer sounded.Those competitive contests came after transactional decisions that already connected the two teams. Ahead of a third matchup that seems destined to be hard fought, let’s examine the tangled fates of the Mystics-Tempo and consider what could have been.Over the offseason, the Tempo tendered a restricted free agent qualifying offer to Austin for $3.57 million over three years. The Mystics matched the contract offer, keeping Austin in DC as part of a talented, yet-crowded frontcourt.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAustin, plagued by nagging injuries through much of her WNBA career, is putting together a career-best season with the Mystics.In almost 29 minutes per game, Shakira is scoring 14 points per game, a total achieved, in part, by getting to the line for 5.3 free throws per game and experimenting with over a 3-point attempt per game. With a sub-70-percent free throw percentage, she’s leaving more points at the line, even as she’s drilling her triples at an impressive, although possibly unsustainable, 42.3 percent rate. Austin’s also bringing down a career-high 9.1 rebounds per game, in addition to swatting 1.4 shots per game, a number that’s also a career high.Zack Ward just wrote about Shakira’s superstar showing in Washington’s most recent win over the Seattle Storm.All that production could have been transformative for the Tempo.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementNone of their bigs provide the offensive production and defensive presence of Austin. The Tempo offense is highly-dependent on the isolation scoring of Marina Mabrey and, when healthy, Brittney Sykes, in addition to the 3-point shooting of their supporting perimeter players. While bigs Isabelle Harrison and Nyara Sabally have scored efficiently for Toronto, Austin is more dynamic than both, although the bigger difference would come on the other end. Even if Shakira isn’t an All-Defense-level defender, and could not singularly elevate a leaky Toronto defense, she would offer a lot more resistance than Harrison or Sabally.On the other side, Washington would, obviously, be worse off without Austin, especially in the immediate.Yet, it’s worth asking if, in the longterm, the absence of Austin would be a positive. As Becket