It wasn’t a playoff win, but the atmosphere was electric as the Atlanta Dream found a way to deliver a girtty 83-78 win over the Dallas Wings.
Ahead of Tuesday’s matchup, Atlanta Dream guard Haley Jones told the media that Atlanta needed to come out with “a lot more juice” at the beginning of games. They got a fantastic opportunity to do that against a team that stole all of their juice a season ago: the Dallas Wings.
There’s something about the Dallas Wings that wrecks the Atlanta Dream. Head Coach Tanisha Wright believes it starts with bigs like Teaira McCowan and Kalanai Brown. “Yeah, we need to go out and get a little bit more size,” Wright said pre-game. “Adding Tina [Charles] definitely helps with that. We need to be able to rebound the basketball a little bit better.”
Wright was right. The size of the Dallas Wings was a problem early for Atlanta. They were getting out-rebounded by former Dream forward Monique Billings, who already had nine rebounds by the third quarter, and Teaira McCowan, who added seven more.
If that wasn’t enough, the walking bucket that is Arike Ogunbowale unraveled everything else. Arike was shooting a blistering 60-plus-percent for most of the game. That’s not a typo.
“With Arike it’s hard, right?” Wright explained postgame. “She’s gonna make tough shots. You know that. She’s a great scorer, prolific scorer in this league. But your job is to make it tough. Don’t give her anything easy.”
Every time the Dream tried to get close, the Wings found some sort of magic to neutralize anything the team threw at them: Tina Charles, Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray 3-pointers, Haley Jones ball-movement and Cheyenne Parker-Tyus paint work. But, Naz Hillmon came to work and she brought her hustle lunch pail.
Hillmon had five rebounds, two assists, and one steal that catapulted the Dream back into the driver’s seat. The buckets started falling everywhere: Parker-Tyus, Aerial Powers, Gray, you name it. The Dream went on to win 83-78 after holding off a late push from Arike and the Wings.
“She’s our glue,” Rhyne Howard explained when it was all over. “When she comes in and makes plays like she did tonight, it really gets us going. I know a lot of what she does doesn’t show up in the stat sheet, but we’re asking that of her every day.”
The Dream grew up remarkably on Tuesday night. Tanisha Wright emphasized that the scoring is not the issue right now. It’s the team’s defense, and I agree. This team is booming when their defense dictates the offense. As simple as that sounds, that’s the working recipe.
On Sunday, they’ll have another chance to find the right ingredients against Napheesa Collier and the Minnesota Lynx.
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