Dream Snaps Five-Game Winning Streak with Loss to Las Vegas
The Atlanta Dream tried to turn State Farm Arena into a dream house against Las Vegas on Monday but fell short.
On Barbie night, with pink towels given to the sold-out crowd, Las Vegas beat Atlanta 109-87, snapping its five-game winning streak.
A night that was supposed to be fun, and featured fans wearing pink everything, instead resulted in Atlanta’s worst loss this season. The Dream (19-11), hurt by a poor second quarter in which it was outscored by 19 points, lost by its biggest margin, gave up its most points, field goals (44), and highest shooting percentage (62) by an opponent this season.
“Great energy in the arena, great support, we appreciate everybody that came out,” Dream Head Coach Karl Smesko said. “Unfortunately, the Aces were just outstanding today, and that second quarter they just really stuck it to us, and really never let us get back in the game. They were really, really good.”
While Las Vegas hit most everything, the Dream missed 21 of 25 3-pointers. Smesko said the Aces were denying Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard and daring the rest of Atlanta’s players to shoot.
Angel Reese, the inspiration for Barbie night, led Atlanta with 23 points and 16 rebounds. Howard added 19 points. They were the only two Atlanta players to score at least 10 points.
Las Vegas’ Jackie Young finished with a triple-double: 28 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. A’ja Wilson added 23 points, NaLyssa Smith 18 and Chelsea Gray 17.
“She’s really aggressive and we let her get downhill to her right too many times,” Smesko said of Young. “She had just an outstanding game today.”
The Dream started the second half trailing 55-38, mostly because it missed 16 of 19 3-point attempts, and Las Vegas hit 65% of its shots in the first half. The Aces outscored the Dream 33-14 in the second quarter, during which Atlanta missed eight of nine 3-pointers.
“We can’t allow that, especially with the confidence we have in our defense,” Howard said.
Things didn’t get better for Atlanta in the third quarter.
Atlanta fell behind by eight more points, 86-61, to end the third, because Las Vegas hit 68% of its 19 shots. The Aces outscored the Dream 22-14 in the free-throw lane.
Reese went on a personal 7-0 run to start the fourth quarter that got the crowd back into the game and cut Atlanta’s deficit to 17 points.
The Dream has made a habit this season of producing impressive fourth-quarter performances. It didn’t happen against Las Vegas. Atlanta was too far behind.
“I don’t care who the Aces were playing, they were going to win,” Smesko said. “This was one of their best games of the season. They reached a level today that was definitely championship level. We are capable of playing better and shooting better than we did today.”
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