In this week’s Bowman Beat I review the loss on the road to New York, watch the Dream bang on the scoreboard in a big win over the Sun, look at what’s going on around the league, and provide a new set of WNBA Power Rankings.

New York Liberty 78, Atlanta Dream 67

The Dream’s road loss to the New York Liberty has to hurt, because they had a real chance of upsetting the number one team in the Eastern Conference.  Instead, the 78-67 loss but Atlanta six games out of fourth place in the Eastern Conference and gave the Libs their third win in four tries this season.

Atlanta’s starting lineup of Shoni Schimmel, Tiffany Hayes, Damiris Dantas, Angel McCoughtry and Sancho Lyttle was the Dream’s 13^th different starting lineup in 25 games this season.  Yet lo and behold, it started to work as Atlanta took an early lead.  Eight players appeared for Atlanta in the first quarter (including Delisha Milton-Jones, playing in her 494^th WNBA game), and all of them scored except for McCoughtry.  Schimmel missed a couple of easy layups but and Dantas went 1-for-5 in the first 10 minutes but other than that, the Dream actual led at the end of the quarter 18-16.

The visitors built on their success in the second quarter and the Dream switched defenses from man to zone to keep the Liberty off balance.  New York was forced to look for set shots away from the rim, and they weren’t falling.  A steal by Hayes followed by a driving layup put Atlanta up 28-21 with 6:15 to go in the first half.  However, New York posts Tina Charles and Carolyn Swords found their way inside, and a triple from guard Epiphanny Prince tied the game at 30-30 with 3:49 to go.  New York would take the lead soon  after but a pullup jumper by McCoughtry made it a one-point game, with the Liberty leading 37-36 at the half.

Head coach Michael Cooper made the decision to sit McCoughtry at the beginning of the second half.  Schimmel continued to struggle but the Dream was getting the benefit of the foul calls and was able to turn New York’s turnovers into fast break layups.  The Liberty called timeout with 6:49 left in the third and Atlanta leading 46-39.   After the timeout, Dantas extended the Dream’s lead to nine with a rebounded miss from Schimmel but after that New York went on a 10-0 run fueled by Charles.  Charles’s shots away from the basket weren’t falling in the first half but the Liberty was now finding their long range touch.  It would be a 15-3 New York run in the final 3:29 of the period as New York took a 54-51 lead with 10 minutes to go.

The Dream had only shot 23.5 percent in the third quarter, so could they do better in the final one?  Unfortunately, there would be no reset as the Liberty shot out the lights with Charles playing at long range and making all of her shots.  She had nine points in the fourth quarter as the Liberty extended their lead and coasted to a home win.  The Dream only hit 27 percent of their shots in the second half altogether.

Hayes led all Atlanta players with 17 points on 6-for-13 shooting.  McCoughtry scored 13 points, the only other Dream player in double figures.  Schimmel had seven points on 3-for-13 shooting and had four assists, but the rest of the team had just three assists combined.  Compare that with New York’s 21 assists.

Charles led the Liberty with 25 points and Prince followed with 18.  New York beat the Dream in the paint, 32 points to 22.  It is the fourth consecutive time that the Dream have lost a game to the Liberty at Madison Square Garden.

Dream head coach Michael Cooper:  “I just thought we stopped competing… You have to have patience in your offense, and you have to draw strength in your defense. We did neither of those. We’ll be ready for Connecticut. These are all playoff type of games that we have to win if we’re going to make the playoffs. Our window is closing slightly. We have to play and compete. It’s not just about this year we’re looking for the future of the organization.”

Epiphanny Prince vs. Angel McCoughtry:  “We wanted to make sure that we paid attention to Angel because she is the head of the snake, so if you limit her [it makes it tough on them].”

Tina Charles vs. Angel McCoughtry:  “It was great. Tanisha [Wright], Swin [Cash], Candice [Wiggins] and everyone who defended Angel made it really difficult on her. This is the best man-to-man defense I’ve seen on Angel since I’ve been in the league and it really helped us tonight.”

Atlanta Dream 102, Connecticut Sun 92

On Sunday night, the Dream traveled to Uncasville, Connecticut to take on the Sun.  The Dream would be playing against a team short-handed due to injuries. Alex Bentley would not play but Kayla Pedersen would see limited duty, recovering from a concussion.

Both teams got off to hot starts in the first quarter from behind the 3-point line – at one point, the Sun were 3-for-4 from behind the line and the Dream were 3-for-3.  Jennifer Lacy hit a couple of three-pointers to finish the first quarter with 12 points. Despite looking a bit sloppy, the Dream shot 56 percent for the first quarter.  McCoughtry had a couple of 3-pointers and finished the quarter with 10 points with both teams tied 23-23 after 10 minutes.

The second quarter would be a big quarter for the Dream, but no one knew exactly how big it would be.  Lacy had the job of guarding McCoughtry, who decided to take the Sun to school.  As McCoughtry was finishing the first half with 19 points, the Dream were on fire from 3-point range, shooting 7-for-8 in the second quarter and shooting 72 percent from the half.  Three-pointers were falling like rainbows and at times the game looked like an NBA All-Star Game skills contests.  Atlanta’s lead blew up from 47-37 to 63-43 seemingly in the blink of an eye.

By the time the first half was over, the Dream had shot 71.9 percent (23-for-32) in the first 20 minutes.  Atlanta’s 63-47 lead marked the second-most points the Dream had ever scored in a half – the record was 65 against Phoenix in 2010.  The Dream had every reason to feel confident.  McCoughtry had 19, Hayes had 14 and Schimmel had 12 as Atlanta put together a clinic in its first 20 minutes.  Lacy had 20 points – 6-for-6 shooting with 3-for-3 shooting from beyond three point range, but it was all Dream.

The problem was that the Dream’s dominance was sparked by unearthly shooting and they were bound to regress to the mean.  Lacy scored her 23 point in the third quarter, her third-straight 20+ point game and setting a career scoring record.  The Sun jumped out to a 17-10 run and managed to close the lead back to within nine digits.  Atlanta exchanged baskets with the Sun but couldn’t shake them, and with 32.5 seconds left in the third Chelsea Gray hit one of two to close the Dream lead down to eight points.  It stayed there at the end of thirty minutes with Atlanta leading 84-76 with one period to go.

The Dream had lost double-digits leads earlier this season and the thought of losing after being up by 20 was sobering.  The undermanned Sun continued to hang in there, and a layup by Kelsey Bone closed the Sun to 86-80 with 6:23 left to go.  However, Atlanta would answer with an 8-0 run that put Atlanta back in double-digits, enough of a buffer to cross the 100 point mark for the very first time this season and earn a much-needed win.

McCoughtry scored 33 points and eight rebounds in an amazing performance.  Four other Dream players scored in double digits, led by Tiffany Hayes with 19 points.  Every single Dream player who made an appearance scored as Atlanta shot 59.7 percent for the game.

Lacy’s 25 was a career high, and Little added 22 points for the Sun on 10-for-13 shooting.  It was the first time in over a year that two Connecticut Sun players scored over 20 points in the same game.

Dream head coach Michael Cooper on McCoughtry:  “Angel is a fantastic player and she becomes a better player when she plays with the team and that is one of the things that I have been stressing to her. We know she can get it done one-on-one, but she has the ability like some of the great NBA players like Steph Curry and LeBron James to make her teammates better because she attracts so much attention from the defense and I thought she did an excellent job with that tonight.”

Sun head coach Anne Donovan on Lacy:  “We brought her in to play the three and the four and we brought her in because she’s a great shooter and can spread the defense out a little bit. But if you would’ve asked me if she had led us in scoring for three games, I would have not bet on that one so I give her a lot of credit for staying ready and coming in and staying true to who she is. She’s done a tremendous job for us. We would be in a world of hurt without Jen Lacy right now. ”

WNBA Tidbits

 * On Tuesday, the Sparks lost to the Fever 79-68 but Candace Parker of the Sparks set the franchise record for steals in a game with eight.

* New York’s 73-45 win over the San Antonio Stars on the road on Wednesday was the first time the Liberty had beaten the Stars in San Antonio since 2011, when they were the Silver Stars.

* On Friday, the Tulsa Shock – who had the longest losing streak this season – won their third straight game when they beat Connecticut 84-76 in Tulsa.

* Minnesota’s 78-61 win over San Antonio on Friday completed a season sweep by the Lynx against the Stars.

* Washington suffered back to back heartbreaking losses to the Chicago Sky on Friday on Saturday.  On Friday, the Sky’s Allie Quigley hit a triple with 2.1 seconds left to beat the Mystics at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, 87-85.  Two nights later, they’d be the final team to score as Cappie Pondexter drove to the basket for the final go-ahead bucket with 6.7 seconds left as Chicago beat Washington on the road 66-64.

 

Tuesday, August 25:  Connecticut Sun @ Atlanta Dream, 11:30 am ET

(Series tied 2-2)

Atlanta will finish its “mini-series” with the Sun on Tuesday morning in a kid’s game where the gates open at 11:30 am.  School has already started in Georgia, so if you’re planning on taking a day off from work to catch this game, be prepared for a game where there will be lots of screaming kids undoubtedly glad to be free from their burden of reading, writing and arithmetic.

If the Connecticut Sun were looking for a theme song right now, it would be the “Theme from M*A*S*H”.  Connecticut is certainly a M*A*S*H unit with half of their squad seemingly in intensive care.  Alex Bentley, Elizabeth Williams, Alyssa Thomas, Kayla Pedersen and Chiney Ogwumike could all be out for this rematch.   Even Jennifer Lacy got banged up on Sunday.  The joke is that there are as many Sun players in street clothes as there are in uniform, and it has to be hard to practice when you don’t even have enough players for 5-on-5 ball.

If there is a game that the Dream can steal, it’s this one.  Not merely because the win would give Atlanta the regular season series, but also because in order for Atlanta to have the slimmest hope of sprinting its way into a playoff spot at the end of the season, it will have to get past the hurdle of the Sun.

Friday, August 28:  Atlanta Dream @ Indiana Fever, 7 pm ET

(Indiana leads 2-0)

The rest of the season is against familiar Eastern Conference opponents and the Dream has good reason to remember the Fever – they lost the first game 90-79 and were crushed in the rematch 106-77.   That second game was a road game; Atlanta hopes that a fever team that has won eight of its last nine games will find some reason to cool down.

In that horrible game on August 7, the Dream turned the ball over 26 times.  That won’t happen (I hope) on Friday but over the past 10 games, Atlanta has led the WNBA in turnovers with 15.3 per game.  Looking at “last 10 games” stats, the only team with more steals than Atlanta is Indiana, averaging 9.3a game, so the key to this game might be transition defense.  If the Fever gets their hands of the ball, can Atlanta stop them from turning opportunities to score into actual points?

But in particular, McCoughtry and Schimmel will have to correct their propensity for turning over the ball.  Yes, Tamika Catchings is a fantastic defensive player but McCoughtry and Schimmel are both in the WNBA top ten in turnovers, with McCoughtry leading the league  Players like Indiana’s Shenise Johnson have to be kept from having the big games that they’re capable of having – this is her best WNBA season after three years in San Antonio and one of the reasons that the Fever have been scorching up the East.

Saturday, August 29:  Chicago Sky @ Atlanta Dream, 7 pm ET

(Chicago leads 2-1)

Twenty-four hours after tipping off in Indiana the Dream come back home to Philips to play their final back-to-back game of the regular season and close out the season series against the team that knocked them out of the 2014 playoffs, the Chicago Sky.  Atlanta would love not just to finish 2-2 against the Sky but to make it as hard as they can for Chicago.

If you needed three words to get you out of your seat and to travel to Philips to see this game live, I’ve got them for you – Elena.  Delle.  Donne.  Delle Donne is scoring 24.1 points per game, leading the WNBA.  She can score from just about any position on the court and is a threat to blow up every minute she’s playing.  (And at 6’5” it’s hard to take your eyes off of her.)  If I had to hand out WNBA hardware at this point in the season, my MVP award would have to go to Delle Donne, even over Angel McCoughtry and Maya Moore.

That’s not the only reason to show up – this game might be winnable for Atlanta.  The Sky have had to play two tough games against the Washington Mystics and just squeaked by in both of them.  Atlanta might lead the league in points allowed per game, but Chicago is right behind them and players like McCoughtry, Hayes, and Schimmel love to shoot.  If two of those three get hot – or all three – Chicago could find their plans for a win in Philips turned into a smoking wreck.  McCoughtry hasn’t forgotten that amazing fourth quarter by Delle Donne against the Dream in the 2014 playoffs and frankly, the Dream are overdue for a great performance.  All of the Dream’s games against Chicago have been decided by five points or less, so this one should be close.

WNBA Power Rankings

1. New York Liberty (18-8) – The Fever beat the Libs 80-79, but New York wasn’t too shabby playing in Indiana.
2. Los Angeles Sparks (10-17) – Wouldn’t a Liberty vs. Sparks WNBA Finals be wild?  Don’t laugh.  Candace Parker is looking like she has something to prove.
3. Indiana Fever (17-9) – Fever have won nine out of their last ten.  Team is leading the WNBA in bench scoring.
4. Washington Mystics (15-11) – Beat the Lynx twice in a row, and if some possessions had gone their way could have had two wins against the Sky as well.
5. Phoenix Mercury (16-11) – Broke a three-game losing streak with a nice win against the Lynx. Can they make up 2 ½ games with seven to go?
6. Chicago Sky (17-11) – Delle Donne’s 3-point numbers have dropped this season, but nothing else has.
7. Minnesota Lynx (19-9) – They’re not playing like their record. Head coach Cheryl Reeve getting two technical in the loss to Phoenix on Sunday smelled more of frustration than strategy.
8. Connecticut Sun (12-14) – Up, then down, then up, and now down again. If you live in Connecticut and have a Sun uniform and XX chromosomes, you could be signed to a contract.
9. Atlanta Dream (10-16) – Last time the Dream won three of their last five was before that horrid road trip.
10. Tulsa Shock (13-14) – Shock has decided that they’re going to play, and they’ve got a lot to play for – a third-place finish and a possible .500 regular season.
11. Seattle Storm (7-20) – Will probably not finish last in the West this year.
12. San Antonio Stars (7-21) – Lost nine out of their last 10. Lost by 31 on Sunday.  This team looks like it has just plain given up.