by James Bowman, AtlantaDream.net
This week’s Bowman Beat discusses recent changes in the Atlanta Dream roster, asks Dream head coach Michael Cooper about DeLisha Milton-Jones and updates this week’s WNBA Power Rankings. We start with reviewing Sunday afternoon’s game against the visiting Seattle Storm.
Atlanta Dream 72, Seattle Storm 64
Before the game against the Storm, changes were announced in the roster by the Atlanta Dream front office. Center Nadia Colhado had been released by Atlanta on July 3rd and on the morning of game time Dream fans learned that Samantha Logic had been traded to the San Antonio Stars in exchange for the Stars’ second round draft pick in 2016. Guard Tiffany Hayes and forward/center Aneika Henry, missing five games while playing in the 2015 European Games in Azerbaijan, were finally back with the squad. Dream fans hoped that the return of Hayes and Henry would be nothing but positive.
Hayes would get the start in the game, but it was Dream center Erika de Souza making her presence felt, getting physical under the boards and scoring seven first quarter points. It was Atlanta getting on the scoreboard first and leading 14-5 early in the game. However, the Dream went cold and it was Seattle’s time to shine, with seven Storm players getting into the box score for the quarter and closing to 16-14 after the first 10 minutes.
With the Dream shooting poorly in the first quarter, it would be up to individual heroics. Seattle’s defense packed the lane against a Dream team known for poor long-range shooting, and forward Angel McCoughtry burned them with back-to-back 3-pointers. Dream combo guard Matee Ajavon had back-to-back drives to the basket and the Dream was up by 10, 26-16. Seattle whittled down the advantage with free throws but forward Sancho Lyttle’s basket with 3.3 left in the first half allowed Atlanta t0 take a 36-27 lead into halftime. The Dream were still struggling with bench points – only four points came from non-starters- but they were now shooting 41.2 percent.
The third quarter was a work in progress for both sides, with four and a half minutes gone and the only point scored in that time frame was by point guard Sue Bird on a free throw after a technical foul by Ajavon. Center Abby Bishop picked up her fourth personal foul (two within 20 seconds) and forward Crystal Langhorne her third. With 4:53 left in the third, the only player in double figures was McCoughtry with 13, she had the quarter’s only basket and Seattle was shooting 27.8 percent. Finally, Atlanta relocated the basket and extended the lead back to double digits, leading 53-39 going into the final quarter.
In the fourth, Atlanta was forced to call a timeout with 8:03 left after Alysha Clark burned the Dream on a couple of fast-break baskets to close the score to 55-48. Sue Bird closed the gap to five with a 3-pointer to close to 57-52 with 5:47 left. Seattle continued to close, and Clark hit a 3-pointer with 2:11 left to close to 63-62.
Would the Dream let it slip away? Not this time. Steals by Angel McCoughtry and Sancho Lyttle kept the ball out of Seattle’s hands at critical moments. Langhorne would foul out of the game, and Atlanta would hit four free throws in the final 20 seconds to put the game out of reach.
Angel McCoughtry would lead all Dream players with 23 points on 8-for-17 shooting, hitting three 3-pointers. Sancho Lyttle had 8 points and 15 rebounds, and Tiffany Hayes had 12 points.
Seattle had four players in double figures, with WNBA #1 Draft pick Jewell Loyd leading the Storm off the bench with 12 points. Sue Bird had 11 points and five assists, but shot 4-for-15 for the game and 1-for-7 from 3-point range.
Michael Cooper on what the team worked on, since it had nine days to prepare for the game: “Defense. A lot of defensive stuff, as far as guarding people on the perimeter, our schemes, our pick and roll coverage, our low post coverage. I thought we did a good job sticking with that the majority of the game. And when we play good defense it usually creates good offense for us.”
Sue Bird on road games: “Winning on the road in this league is not easy. When teams are at home, they are very comfortable, you have the fan support behind you, and that can affect a road team, especially with young and inexperienced teams like us. We’re definitely two different teams at home versus on the road, and that’s why more veteran teams with more experience don’t really fall into that trap as much. So it’s definitely something we’re trying to get better at.”
WNBA Tidbits
* McCoughtry’s 23 points moved her into 27th place on the WNBA career scoring list at 3,890 sliding past Asjha Jones (3,872).
* The 72-64 win over Seattle is Atlanta’s first win by a margin of more than three points this season.
* Friday’s 98-95 victory by the Los Angeles Sparks over the Tulsa Shock not only marked the second win in a row for Los Angeles after starting 0-7 but it was a game where guard Kristi Toliver scored 43 points, setting a franchise record for the Sparks . The previous record was 41, set by Lisa Leslie.
* The Sparks came very close to winning three games in a row after starting 0-7, but fell to visiting Phoenix 94-91 in overtime on Sunday.
* Thursday’s rout of Tulsa by the visiting Phoenix Mercury was a game where center Brittney Griner had 13 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 blocked shots in a 86-55 win.
* Ex-WNBA player Becky Hammon will be the first female head coach of an NBA Summer League team. Last season she was an assistant coach of the NBA San Antonio Spurs.
Atlanta Dream info
Cooper on DeLisha Milton-Jones: “She’s coming along. She’s making strides to get there. We knew coming in after last year and her surgery and her rehab that she wouldn’t be available to us until late July/early August. But we’ve got some time, and with Burdick there it’s going to be another month or so to go.”
Cooper on the Logic trade: “Sam Logic was a player we picked in the first round, and there was a backlog there for her. It’s not anything about that player, it’s about what we were looking for and we got a second round pick for her. We feel it’s going to be a high second round, possibly favorable to a first round pick, which is what Sam was. We just had to make room. She was a player we felt needed some minutes on the floor, and we felt she wasn’t going to get that here.”
Cooper on Sancho Lyttle’s play: “Sancho should be Defensive Player of the Year. I think that if she continues this stride that she’s going in, at the end of the year she has to be highly favorited as Defensive Player of the Year. …. she’s always taking on the other best big as far as offensive goal. She does it without missing a beat. She’s probably our leader as far as work—telling the team about our pick and roll coverage and what we’re doing. Then on the offensive end, she has a lot to do there. Her defense has been a staple and that’s what’s going to take us where we want to get to and that’s a championship.”
This week’s games
July 7: Tulsa Shock @ Atlanta Dream, Philips Arena, 8 pm ET
The surprising Tulsa Shock comes to Atlanta to take on the Dream in the first of two games this year. The Shock got off to a great start this year, winning eight out of their first ten games and are sitting in second place in the Western Conference.
Unfortunately for the Shock, things aren’t looking up. Odyssey Sims has only played three games this season due to a knee injury and now Tulsa has learned that point guard Skylar Diggins will miss the rest of the season for with a right ACL tear. Without Diggins, the Shock has lost two straight as of this writing, including losing to the hopeless Sparks to give Los Angeles its very first win of the season. Tulsa still has scorer Riquna Williams and veteran Plenette Pierson, but the Dream could make it a third straight loss for a snake-bit team.
Shock coach Fred Williams is very familiar with the Dream – he was an assistant coach with the Dream for years and Atlanta’s head coach in 2013. However, the Dream won both games against the Shock last season and have won three of the last four. On Tuesday, we’ll see if Atlanta’s roster changes pay off.
July 12: New York Liberty @ Atlanta Dream, Philips Arena, 3 pm ET
(New York leads season series 2-0)
New York plays the third of four games against the Dream in the regular season as they travel to Atlanta on Sunday.
While the Dream has changed its roster, the Liberty has been waiting for part of the roster to show up. Epiphanny Prince has been overseas playing for the Russian women’s team trying to earn the Russians a spot in the Olympics, and on Sunday she came back to the team.
Part of Atlanta’s problem against the Liberty is the Liberty defense. Atlanta shot 35.8 percent against the Libs on June 5th, and then shot an abysmal 29.7 percent against New York on June 21st. Furthermore, in both games New York got double-digit contributions from bench players whereas Atlanta struggled to get points from anyone but their starters.
There’s no love lost between Dream head coach Michael Cooper and Liberty head coach Bill Laimbeer, so the pressure is on the team to come up with a win. Further pressure comes from the fact that this is Atlanta’s last home game for a while – they play the next six games after that on the road, and eight out of the next nine games. Atlanta needs to go on the road with confidence, and what better way that to deliver a loss to the Liberty?
Power Rankings
- Minnesota Lynx (8-2): The Lynx has been patiently biding its time, waiting for the pretenders to get out of the way. The Shock might not get another 18-point win against this team.
- Tulsa Shock (8-4): It’s looking pretty bleak in Tulsa, and a lot of the league has sympathy for their woes. The Dream, however, hope to add to Tulsa’s misery.
- Chicago Sky (6-5): The road win against the Sun on July 2? That wouldn’t have happened in previous seasons, maybe not even last year.
- Connecticut Sun (7-3): Two straight home losses show that the Sun might not go “worst to first” this season.
- Washington Mystics (6-5): A 23-point loss to the Indiana Fever just goes to show that the WNBA’s Eastern Conference is a place where anything can happen.
- Phoenix Mercury (6-5): The Merc is 3-1 with Brittney Griner back on the roster. Imagine where they’d be if Taurasi and Taylor were with her.
- New York Liberty (6-4): The Libs have yet to play the Sun. That game comes July 16th, and then three games starting in mid-August.
- Indiana Fever (5-6): Team stutters all season, then beats the Sun and Mystics big-time.
- Atlanta Dream (5-6): In the game against Seattle, Cierra Burdick had a statistical rarity – a “trillion”. Her box score line had minutes played, followed by a line of zeroes in all statistical categories.
- (tie) Seattle Storm (3-9): Only reason they’re not in tenth place is that the Dream has yet to dominate a team from start to finish.
- Los Angeles Sparks (2-8): Kristi Toliver brought them out of the cellar by herself, and rumor has it that Candace Parker might be back.
- San Antonio Stars (2-8): Good news for 2015 Dream first round draft pick Samantha Logic – there’s nowhere to go but up with the Stars. Bad news for 2015 Dream second round draft pick Brittany Hrynko – guess who San Antonio let go to make room for Logic?