The Atlanta Dream have won just twice in their last eight games.
Both games shared a few key highlights: Angel Reese contributed a double-double, and the Dream’s defense provided a boost to their offense.
Atlanta (14-10) will try to continue both trends when it visits Toronto (10-14) on Friday. The Dream had lost five games in a row before defeating visiting Seattle 89-78 on July 9 as Reese had 18 points and 11 rebounds.
But Reese missed Atlanta’s next game because of an ankle injury, and the Dream lost 102-92 at home to Portland last Saturday. Reese returned with 23 points and 13 rebounds for her 16th double-double in a 101-92 victory over visiting Los Angeles on Monday.
“Angel made big emotional plays that gave us the energy to close it out,” coach Karl Smesko said.
The Dream scored 21 points off turnovers after they had 28 in the win against Seattle.
Now that it has won two of its last three and the season is into its second half, Atlanta hopes it is regaining the form it had before the losing streak.
“It’s time to lock in and string wins together,” said Allisha Gray, who scored 20 points against Los Angeles.
Injury-plagued Toronto has also lost six of its last eight games, following a 79-62 home loss to Washington on Tuesday. The Tempo held a six-point halftime lead, but got outscored 53-30 in the second half.
Toronto continues to play without Brittney Sykes (left plantar fascia), who has missed the last nine games, Kiki Rice (left ankle sprain), who has missed the last 14 and Temi Fagbenle (concussion), who has missed the last five.
“We miss them on the court, and we can’t wait for them to be back,” said Julie Allemand, who led the Tempo with 15 points against Washington. “This is insane, and this is sad also because imagine if we have the full roster it would be great.”
In the trio’s absence, All-Star Marina Mabrey has increased her scoring to 21.0 points per game by averaging 29.6 over the seven games before she had just eight points in Toronto’s lowest-scoring game of the season against the Mystics.
–Field Level Media
