It was just the first game of what it hopes will be a long postseason run, but the Atlanta Dream showed why it thinks it’s a WNBA championship contender by running past the Washington Mystics 92-77 on Sunday at State Farm Arena.

The victory gave the Dream a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series, which continues Wednesday in Washington. It was a good start for a franchise that hasn’t made it past the first round of the playoffs since 2018.

Atlanta rallied from an 11-point deficit, a result of poor shooting, with a furious defensive effort in the third period to build a 13-point lead that it carried through the rest of the game.

“A good way to start the series, but we know we have to get another win,” Dream Head coach Karl Smesko said. “That’s what we plan to do.”

Rhyne Howard led Atlanta with 26 points, Allisha Gray had 22, Angel Reese 13 with 12 rebounds, Jordin Canada 10 with 11 assists, and DeWanna Bonner came off the bench with 13 points, many of them during a critical third quarter. The Dream helped its offense by finishing with 16 steals, breaking the franchise single-game playoff record set in 2011. Those were turned into 27 points.

“We feel good about how we set the tone in the first game but there’s a lot more work to be done,” Smesko said.

Atlanta started by missing nine of its first 10 shots and trailed 14-5 with 5:14 remaining in the first quarter.

“We realized that they were getting too many easy looks,” Howard said. “We didn’t show up with the aggressiveness that we’ve had the last four games before this.”

Atlanta rallied to hit six of its next 12 shots, cutting Washington’s lead to 26-21 going into the second quarter.

“I think we were playing with a lot of nerves,” Bonner said. “You still have to play fun basketball.”

Atlanta stayed five points behind going into the second half, despite Reese and Gray going 4-of-22.

The Dream was a third-quarter team at the end of the season because of its defense, and that continued Sunday.

Atlanta started the quarter with a 7-0 run to take a 43-41 lead. The Dream built its lead to 56-48 with Bonner’s 11 points sparking the charge. The forward, acquired near the end of the season for her championship experience, surpassed 1,300 postseason points in her career.

“She made so many big plays for us, and the enthusiasm she played with, the joy of playing basketball, was huge for us,” Smesko said.

A Gray layup increased Atlanta’s lead to 58-48. Reese completed a three-point play to push the team’s lead to 61-48 with 2:29 remaining. It was her first basket from inside the free-throw lane.

Gray followed with a jumper in the lane as Atlanta’s lead ballooned to 13. The Dream carried a 65-53 lead into the fourth quarter. Its defense forced Washington to miss 12 of its 15 shots in the quarter. When the Dream weren’t contesting shots, it forced turnovers, turning six into 14 points.

“We let them get comfortable offensively,” Washington guard Sonia Citron said. “We let some of our discipline slip. Once they get going, it’s really hard to stop them.”

Smesko used Madina Okot and Reese together, something he didn’t do frequently during the regular season, to start the fourth quarter. Okot started the quarter with a layup, assisted by Reese. Okot followed with a steal and fed Howard for a 3-pointer, giving Atlanta a 70-53 lead.

“We hoped she (Okot) would be an X-factor for us,” Smesko said.

Washington became more careful with the ball, which forced Atlanta into more half-court sets.  Its offense again started to stall. The Mystics cut Atlanta’s lead to 81-74 with 3:26 left.

After a timeout, Smesko sent out Canada, Reese, Bonner, Gray, and Howard. Reese kept a possession alive with an offensive rebound. Canada kept it alive again with a steal, the team’s 16th of the game to tie the franchise record. Gray finished it with a three-point play to give the Dream a 10-point lead with 2:41 left.

Bonner stopped Washington’s next possession with a rebound, was fouled, and hit both free throws to increase Atlanta’s lead to 86-74 with 2:29 left.

Atlanta cruised to the win. One more and it will advance to the Semifinals.

“We realize the next game is going to be harder than this one,” Howard said. “What we did in the first half, we can’t have again.”