The Minnesota Lynx were too much for the Atlanta Dream. A putrid third quarter and a hot Kayla McBride unraveled Atlanta, 92-79.
The Atlanta Dream gutted out an 83-78 win against the Dallas Wings on May 21. It wasn’t pretty at times, and their defense needed a lot of work. One of the top scorers in the league, Arike Ogunbowale, dropped 24 in Gateway Arena, which felt like a huge relief. But on Sunday, they had Napheesa Collier on their docket, who has been putting up MVP numbers — averaging 23 points a game and shooting over 47 percent.
“I mean, Phee is just… she’s just good”, head coach Tanisha Wright said pregame. “Her activity, her energy…the fact that she plays fearless…she does it on both ends of the floor, too.”
The last time these two teams played, Collier dropped 35 and 27 points, respectively. That’s a tall task for a team still figuring out its defense. There’s some good — getting stops and dialing in. But there’s been some bad as well.
“The bad is not doing that consistently,” Wright said. “I think if we can get a consistent way of how we’re playing defensively, we’ll start to see some of these games start to get a little bit easier.”
Easy isn’t a word I would’ve used to describe the Dream’s start to Sunday’s game. By early in the second quarter, Minnesota Lynx guard Kayla McBride was up to 14 points, Alanna Smith had 12 points and the Dream had six fouls. Atlanta eventually tied the game around the second quarter’s eight-minute mark, but the Lynx had what felt like a million ways to score on the other end: Collier, Courtney Williams, Smith, McBuckets (I mean, McBride) — pick one.
With just under five minutes, Atlanta got the lead down to 11, but Kayla nailed another three, and that was the dagger.
Unfortunately, Rhyne Howard’s (23 points, five rebounds, five assists and six steals) and Tina Charles’ (14 points) nights were but a blip on the radar as the Lynx rolled to a 92-79 win behind McBride’s 31 points and 20 points of insurance from Napheesa Collier.
“We just have to figure out ways to stop those players once they get hot…making things hard for them,” Naz Hillmon said postgame. Tanisha Wright acknowledged that guarding McBride was a huge problem from the beginning.
“I thought we were soft to start on her,” Wright explained. “Somebody like McBride makes her first shot, second shot, sees something go through…you can’t start out soft on those players. You gotta make those players work for everything that they’re gonna get.”
The Dream’s next several games aren’t the best either. They have A’ja Wilson and the back-to-back champs on Friday, May 31 and then the undefeated Connecticut Sun on Sunday, June 2. Sending thoughts and prayers to Atlanta’s defensive assignments. May the odds be ever in their favor.
Hall About Sports 