In this week’s Bowman Beat, the Dream split a pair of games at Philips Arena before a six game road trip starting this week.  We ask Coach Cooper about Tiffany Hayes and Shoni Schimmel, and we finish with the WNBA power rankings.

Let’s jump right in with a review of Tuesday night’s game against the Shock.

Tulsa Shock 85, Atlanta Dream 75

Tulsa got on the board first in the game with a tip-in by forward Plenette Pierson and a three pointer from the top of the arc by forward Karima Christmas to take a 5-0 lead. Atlanta center Erika de Souza had a couple of early assists but it took Atlanta hitting the boards and hitting them hard to get enough touches to keep within range of the Shock.  With 4:14 left in the first, the Dream were down just four – but had 11 rebounds to Tulsa’s five while only shooting 29.4 percent.   Tulsa was on fire from the field, shooting over 73 percent for the first quarter and taking a 20-11 lead with 3:31 left.  Despite Angel McCoughtry shooting 2-for-8 in the first quarter, Atlanta was still within eight points of red hot Tulsa, down 29-21 after the first 10 minutes.

The Dream began to pick up their feet in the second quarter and closed the game to 32-31 after a couple of drives by McCoughtry, capping a 10-1 Atlanta run forcing Tulsa to call a time out.  Both teams were in foul trouble early in the quarter.  McCoughtry and Defensive Player of the Year candidate Sancho Lyttle brought the crowd to its feet with great defensive plays but Atlanta could not take the lead.   Erika de Souza struggled at the free throw line, missing three of four late in the second quarter as Tulsa took a 48-41 halftime lead.

The third quarter was more of the same.  The Dream could remain within striking distance but couldn’t land the critical blow.  A drive by Atlanta guard Tiffany Hayes closed the Tulsa lead to 50-49, but the follow up drive by McCoughtry fell agonizingly short.  Plenette Pierson was having a great night, shooting 9-for-11 after three quarters and a three from guard Riquna Williams gave Tulsa its first double-digit lead, 65-55.

It would be up to Angel McCoughtry to keep Atlanta alive in the fourth.  A three pointer by McCoughtry brought her to 22 points for the game with 7:04 left and Atlanta down 68-61.   A layup by forward Aneika Henry followed by a layup closed the gap to 69-65 with 5:31 left.   The Dream continued to whittle away Tulsa’s lead, and McCoughty hit two free throws with 1:16 left to close the gap to one point, 72-71.

Unfortunately, McCoughtry’s 3-point attempt that could have put Atlanta in the lead fell short and for the rest of the game the Dream would have to foul and pray that the Shock faltered.  They didn’t.  Williams would go 6-for-6 from the free throw line for the rest of the game and Christmas would go 4-for-4 and the Shock would take the free throws and the victory.

Tulsa point guard Brianna Kiesel had a career high with 16 points and Plenette Pierson would have a 24 point game.  Center Courtney Paris had 10 rebounds and two points and Riquna Williams would score 18 of her 23 points from the free throw line.

For Atlanta, Angel McCoughtry had 25 points on 8-for-28 shooting and nine rebounds – it was her 18^th straight game with double digits in a streak stretching back to 2014.   Forward Sancho Lyttle had a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Aneika Henry scored 13 points off the Dream bench with 6-for-9 shooting.  Atlanta scored 56 of its 75 points in the paint.

Michael Cooper on Angel McCoughtry and volume shooting:  “It hurts us, but for 80 to 90 percent of the game I felt that Angel did a lot of things to work within the team.  She’s such a competitor out there that sometimes she feels like she can take it all upon her shoulders and win the game.  But I’ve talked to her and we’ve come to an agreement that teams aren’t going to let her beat them.”

Plenette Pierson on the team’s defense:  “That’s our forte this year: to be aggressive and play hard for all 40 minutes until the buzzer sounds.  The Dream made a run and we just knew we had to stay to them and just weather the storm.”

Atlanta Dream 84, New  York Liberty 76

 On Sunday in Atlanta, there would be two Dream players getting their first starts – Cierra Burdick in place of Sancho Lyttle (suffering from a left foot plantar fascia tear) and Sydney Carter in place of Matee Ajavon.  Burdick managed to put up six points before the first time out of the period, with New York leading 12-11 with 3:46 left in the first quarter and Liberty guard Epiphanny Prince laboring under two fouls.   Shoni Schimmel saw daylight for the first time in a few weeks and picked up an assist and a basket.  Burdick finished the quarter with 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting at Atlanta led 21-17.

At the beginning of the second, Roneeka Hodges provided some energy with Atlanta’s first four points of the quarter.  Atlanta was winning the battle of the boards and expanded the lead to 35-28 with 5:03 left in the first half, but Burdick and Dream forward Aneika Henry had picked up three fouls each.  Liberty center Tina Charles crossed into double digits in the second quarter but Dream forward Angel McCoughtry was taking up the scoring slack as Atlanta was shooting above 50 percent.   McCoughtry soon had her 10^th point and Atlanta would take a 44-32 lead into halftime – its biggest halftime lead of the year.  The Dream finished the first half with 50 percent shooting while Prince and forward Essence Carson of the Liberty remained scoreless.

Atlanta started the third quarter off strong.  A pair of 3-pointers from the top of the arc from McCoughty was followed by another three from guard Tiffany Hayes to take the lead to 53-34 and force a New York time out with 8:01 to go in the third.  McCoughtry would score her 20^th point but the Dream would be over the limit in the back half of the third quarter and a 3-pointer by Sugar Rogers with 2:42 left closed the Liberty to 59-49 and forced Atlanta to call a time-out.

The Dream was clearly frustrated by the New York defense.  They were caught twice by 24 second violations and continued to rack up fouls.  Tiffany Hayes picked up five fouls in the third quarter alone as the Dream’s lead continued to vanish.    The Dream’s 19 point lead had shrank to three points, and only the Liberty’s ineptitude at the free throw line kept it from being worse.  Atlanta was lucky to get a foul called in its favor, but McCoughtry not only hit just one of two from the free throw line but was charged with a foul with 0.9 seconds left on a drive by Brittany Boyd.  Boyd only hit one of two, and the Dream escaped the quarter leading 60-57 despite four turnovers in the final minute.

The Liberty were the first team over the foul limit with 7:10 left in the fourth but New York were hitting more of their shots and the Dream’s foul troubles weren’t over.  Hayes picked up her sixth foul with 6:57 left and with 5:47 left Tina Charles hit a basket that put New York up for the first time in the game 68-67 forcing Atlanta to call a time out before Charles could hit the follow up free throw on Cierra Burdick’s fifth foul.  (She hit it.)

Both teams had combined for 70 free throws during the game.  The Dream regained their lead but it would be tight over the final two minutes.  Of course, it would come down to free throws in the end.  With less than a minute to go, Prince missed a shot that would have narrowed Atlanta’s lead to two.  The Dream got the rebound and Angel McCoughtry waited a long time to attack, drawing a foul from Sugar Rodgers with 25.6 seconds left.  She would hit both free throws to put the Dream up by six, and Burdick would add a couple of free throws to seal the win.

Angel McCoughtry led all players with 32 points on 9-for-12 shooting with six assists.   Cierra Burdick and Sydney Carter added 12 points each.  Erika de Souza had five point and eight rebounds, but six turnovers.

Four players scored in double figures for the Liberty, led by Tina Charles with 22 points.  Point guard Brittany Boyd shot just 3-for-10 from the free throw line as the Liberty only hit 67.6 percent of their free throws.   (The Dream wasn’t much better at 72.2 percent)

Coach Cooper on Sydney Carter getting the start:  “I just think it was time for a shake up. We had lost that last game against Tulsa and sometimes you have to do those type of things. Sidney’s had a good practice the last three or four practices we’ve had. That doesn’t mean that Matee [Ajavon] is out of the loop by no means.  We just felt Carter was the player we wanted to get things done with this game.”

 Tina Charles:   “I think we showed great heart, after being down 18 points and being able to come back, we just showed great heart.  We were all out there competing, and something we can take away is that we had heart.”

WNBA Tidbits

 * The WNBA’s monthly awards are out.  Elena Delle Donne of the Chicago Sky and Skylar Diggins of the Tulsa Shock were named the Players of the Month for their respective conferences.  Indiana’s Natalie Achonwa was named the WNBA Rookie of the Month.  Achonwa was actually drafted last season, but was unable to play until this year due to an ACL tear.

* I asked Fred Williams after the Tulsa game about the Shock’s acquisition of Brittany Hrnyko, a player drafted by the Dream but who didn’t make the team.  He said that based on her college performance he thought she was a good perimeter player with a lot of spark who played hard defense.  He also expected that Odyssey Sims would return to the team soon.

* In Indiana’s 88-65 home win over the Seattle Storm on Wednesday, attendance was 12,189.  This was the biggest attendance at an Indiana Fever game in almost 12 years.

* The Fever has now won four straight games.  In their 83-76 win against visiting San Antonio on Friday, Marissa Coleman scored a career-high 25 points.

* Visiting New York defeated Washington 79-76 in overtime on Thursday.  Two items of note:  First, with 2:03 left in the third quarter the game was delayed by a 17 minute power outage at the Verizon Center.  Second, the power outage led to a shooting outage – both teams combined for just 13 fourth-quarter points and both teams combined to shoot 3-for-24 during the quarter.

Atlanta Dream Facts

 * After the Tulsa game, head coach Cooper felt that Tiffany Hayes was still trying to get acclimated to her return to the WNBA.  She shot 3-for-10 in that game, but Cooper felt that she wouldn’t have many more games like that.  He also felt that his post players shied a little way from contact.

* Shoni Schimmel seemed slimmer (say that three times fast) during the Dream’s game against the Liberty.  Does this mean that Schimmel will see more playing time?  “Yep.  Shoni’s worked extremely hard to get to her playing weight last year, and she’s done that, and with that comes the reward of playing a little bit more…I liked the way she played.”

* Cooper on Cierra Burdick.  “She’s a scrapper.  She’s that intangible player for whom you don’t have to do anything or run plays for her, because she gets down there and makes things happen.  And you need a player like that…she’s a tough guard because she’s a four that can extend.”

July 14:  Atlanta Dream @ Phoenix Mercury, 10 pm ET

 Atlanta is now off on a six game road trip, where they play eight of their next nine games on the road.  The first stop is in Phoenix, the home of last year’s WNBA Champions.  The Mercury’s record in the regular season in 2014 was 29-5, but one of those losses was to Atlanta.

The big problem Atlanta Dream faces is the tallest player in the league, Brittney Griner. After seven games without Griner due to her suspension, the Merc have only lost one game since she’s returned.  She’s the kind of player who changes an opposing team’s shot selection without doing anything – players are afraid to get too close to her and get their shots blocked.

This game might be won or lost in the post.  Give Michael Cooper’s comments about Dream players shying away from contact, Atlanta will have to play physical because they don’t have the outside shooting to nullify the threat that Griner represents.

July 16:  Atlanta Dream @ Los Angeles Sparks, 3 pm ET

 It looks like an afternoon game, but local time in Los Angeles will be 12 noon and the visiting Dream will be playing a kid’s game.

The horrible six-game road trip does present some advantages for the Dream in that they play three of the weakest teams in the league.  Los Angeles is probably the worst team in the league right now, dead last in the WNBA in point differential.   Their only victories have not been by much; Jennifer Lacy was just waived the Sparks and the team is still trying to find its footing with a new head coach.

Furthermore, the Sparks were the team least able to take advantage on the fast break – they only have 4.00 fast break points per game.  They have the slowest pace in the WNBA and have the W’s worst defense.  If Kristi Toliver or Nneka Ogwumike aren’t fueled by an arena full of screaming kids, expect the Dream to take advantage of the fast break (they’re the best team in the league) or for Angel McCoughtry to slash her way to the hoop.

July 18:  Atlanta Dream @ Seattle Storm, 9 pm ET

 (Atlanta leads season series 1-0)

Atlanta plays the last of its games west of the Rockies when it heads into Key Arena for a rematch of a game the Dream won 72-64 at Philips Arena.

Seattle is the league’s worst team in the paint, but at Philips Arena the Dream weren’t able to dominate one of the weakest teams in the WNBA from start to finish.  Atlanta really needs a statement win and Seattle might be a good chance to get it.

Whereas the Sparks had the worst defense in the league, the Storm has the worst offense.  Jewell Loyd is shooting better (but not much better and is still dismal) and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis is only getting 7.4 minutes a game.  The Dream have probably if not the best defender in the league, they have a real candidate in Sancho Lyttle but even if she doesn’t make the trip out west…well, Michael Cooper loves it when a team plays lock-down defense, so this is a chance for the Dream players to win some love from him.

WNBA Power Rankings

1. Minnesota Lynx (9-3): Lynx are 66-1 over last 67 games holding opponent under 40 percent shooting. They’re 49-3 over last 52 games when holding an opponent under 70 points.

2. Tulsa Shock (10-4): Part of Tulsa’s woes are over – Odyssey Sims is now healthy enough to play again.

3. Chicago Sky (8-5): Was it too premature to rank the Sky as the best team in the East?  The 20-point win over Connecticut showed that it wasn’t.

4. Connecticut Sun (7-4): Jennifer Lacy was picked up by the Sun after being released by the Sparks.  This makes team #6 for Lacy.

5. Washington Mystics (6-5): End of season will be hard for the Mystics in terms of travel, so coach Mike Thibault wants wins now.

6. New York Liberty (7-5): Prior to Sunday’s game, the Libs had won five straight against Atlanta and eight of the last nine. That’s over now.

7. Phoenix Mercury (8-5): Brittney Griner will be coming off a 26 point game against the Storm. Let’s hope the Dream keep her out of beast mode.

8. Indiana Fever (7-6): After a slow start, the Fever has won their last four games.

9. Atlanta Dream (6-7): Can you believe that Atlanta is just two games out of first place?

10. Seattle Storm (3-12): At least the Storm didn’t have the worst offensive performance on Sunday….

11. San Antonio Stars (3-10): …that belonged to the Stars in a 49-point performance against the Lynx.

11. (tie) Los Angeles Sparks:  (2-10):   The only battle shaping up so far this season is with the Storm and the Stars for the #stewiesweepstakes.