LAS VEGAS, NV – AUGUST 13: Nia Coffey #12 of the Atlanta Dream rebounds the ball during the game against the Las Vegas Aces on August 13, 2023, at Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. NOTE (Photo by David Becker/NBAE via Getty Images)

Nia Coffey notched her third double-double of the season

By W.G. Ramirez

LAS VEGAS — The Dream were playing their third road game in four nights, and the second of a back-to-back, but Atlanta Dream coach Tanisha Wright wasn’t about to make excuses after watching her team let an early third-quarter lead slip away before eventually falling 86-65 to the Las Vegas Aces Sunday night.

“They’re professional athletes, and at this point everybody’s tired, so it’s not special to us,” said July’s WNBA Coach of the Month. “We’re at 30 games into the season. Three-quarters of the way, everybody has some type of nicks and bruises and fatigue, that’s part of it. But we still got to be able to rally and still play the games. That’s just a part of being a pro athlete at this point in the season.”

Atlanta also led in the first two games of the trip – in Seattle and Los Angeles – but couldn’t close the door on the Storm or Sparks.

“We always think next game (up), but those games definitely stunk, those games were very winnable for us,” said Allisha Gray, who led the Dream with 19 points on Sunday. “We just got to come together, lock-in, and just focus on the next (game) and be able to finish out the season strong.”

Nia Coffey notched her third double-double of the season, with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Cheyenne Parker finished with 13 points and Rhyne Howard added 12.

Atlanta’s bench was outscored by Las Vegas’ reserves, 17-11, while the Dream shot just 37.1% (23 of 62) from the floor – well below the 43.0% season-long clip they’re used to. Atlanta also turned the ball over 17 times.

And despite the 21-point loss, Wright felt the loss to the defending champs was her team’s best effort of the road trip.

“I thought we competed much better than we did the last couple of games,” Wright said. “I liked our fight today. I think it’s a stepping stone, it’s something that we can build on, we got to have that type of energy, that type of focus, that type of fight moving forward. It’ll be nice to be able to get home, get a rest, get a reset, and finish out the season strong.”

With the Commissioner’s Cup scheduled for Tuesday in Las Vegas, between the Aces and New York Liberty, the rest of the league can take a deep breath before embarking on the final stretch of the season next week.

Atlanta won’t play again until Friday, when it hosts Chicago to tip off a three-game homestand, during which the Dream will have a chance to avenge two of the three losses from their trip, also hosting Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

“I hope there’s some self-reflection, just seeing what we could do better as a team and what we can do better individually, making sure that we come prepared to go hard when we come back to practice,” Coffey said. “And then make sure that we have the next game mentality and just making sure that we know our roles, we know what we need to do, and we need to play hard every day.”