Forty-eight hours after the Dream’s 73-62 win over the Phoenix Mercury on Wednesday, the Mercury gave the Dream a taste of Atlanta’s own medicine on Friday.
On Wednesday, Atlanta led for almost the entire contest. In Friday’s rematch, the Mercury never trailed en route to an 82-80 victory at Gateway Center Arena.
The Dream’s three-game win streak came to an end.
The Mercury led by as many as 11 points but Atlanta fought back down the stretch and cut the lead to one point multiple times. Atlanta just could not overcome Brittney Griner and the Mercury.
After Phoenix outscored Atlanta 48-41 in the first half, the Dream won the second and third quarters, outscoring the Mercury 39-34.
“I thought our group showed tons of resiliency in this game,” Dream coach Tanisha Wright said. “The energy from the crowd was really great. Any time you have players in foul trouble like we did tonight in the first half, it can be hard to bounce back. But the resiliency that this group showed to get us back in the game and compete at a high level, I’m really proud of them.”
After holding Phoenix to just six first-quarter points on Wednesday – the fewest points Atlanta has allowed in a quarter this season and the fewest the Mercury have scored in the first quarter this season – the Mercury tallied 24 first-quarter points on Monday.
“I thought Phoenix did a good job of spreading us out and going into [Griner] and making us have to decide if we’re going to come out and help and leave their shooters,” Wright said. “We know the way Phoenix likes to play is they like to shoot from the perimeter and they like to get as many [3-pointers] as possible. I thought we did a good job of adjusting in terms of when to come, when not to come and digging, trapping.”
In Wednesday’s game, Atlanta dominated the boards and out-rebounded Phoenix 47-33. Each team had 36 rebounds on Friday. Phoenix shot 39.3% on Wednesday compared to a 48.5 team shooting percentage on Friday.
“They lost the first (game) so obviously they had more adjustments to make than we did,” said Rhyne Howard, who scored 16 points Friday. “It’s hard to beat a good team back-to-back. They made us make tough decisions.”
Griner was held to 14 points and eight rebounds on Wednesday. She tallied 22 points, six assists and six rebounds Friday.
Griner hit some clutch fourth-quarter shots. When Howard’s 3-pointer cut the lead to 69-67 with 7:33 on the clock, Griner responded with four points in a row to make the score 73-67.
“[Griner] is a hall of famer,” Wright said. “There’s no if, ands or doubts about that. She’s a future hall of famer so she’s always [going to] make peoples’ lives tough. I thought we did a great job of adjusting and making her pick and choose her spots.”
Allisha Gray was a huge factor in Atlanta’s fourth-quarter push. She tallied 11 of her team-high 22 points in the final period.
“I was just being aggressive playing my game,” Gray said. “I was taking advantage of what the defense was giving me and I got to my spots and hit my shots.”
Atlanta had its chances to tie the game.
With 42.4 seconds to play and the Dream down 80-77, Jordin Canada’s 3-pointer missed and with five seconds on the clock and Phoenix leading 82-79, Howard got a good shot at a 3-pointer but it didn’t fall.
“I thought we got a great look,” Wright said. “I thought they executed that really well. It’s a set that we’ve run in practice before so we knew exactly what was coming. I thought we had great looks. Sometimes you make them, sometimes you don’t. You want to put yourself in position to get the shot and we got the shot that we wanted.”
After moving to second all-time in the WNBA’s scoring list on Wednesday, the Dream’s Tina Charles had another double-double of 14 points and 13 rebounds.
Charles was purposely fouled and sent to the free throw line with 0.6 seconds to play in regulation and the Dream down 82-79. Charles made the first free throw and purposely missed the second in order to set up the potentially game-tying shot but Monique Billings pulled in the defensive rebound as the buzzer sounded.
Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever will be the Dream’s next test as Indiana will play against Atlanta on Monday at State Farm Arena.
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