Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard scored 20 points apiece on Sunday to lead the Atlanta Dream to an 80-68 victory over the visiting Indiana Dream in the opener of a best-of-three first round playoff series in College Park, Ga.
Naz Hillmon added 16 points and nine rebounds for the third-seeded Dream, who won their first postseason game since 2018. Brionna Jones chipped in 12 points for Atlanta, which can clinch the series on Tuesday in Indianapolis.
Kelsey Mitchell had a game-high 27 points for the sixth-seeded Fever, while Odyssey Sims had 10 in the loss. Lexie Hull scored nine points and Aliyah Boston finished with eight points and 12 rebounds for Indiana, which shot just 2-for-15 (13.3 percent) on 3-point attempts. Atlanta went 7 of 22 (31.8 percent) from distance.
Leading by five after three quarters, the Dream scored the first nine points of the fourth. Jones began the run with a layup, before Howard made a 3-pointer and two technical free throws. Fever head coach Stephanie White and Sims were called for consecutive techs for arguing.
Indiana was held scoreless in the fourth until the 6:34 mark, when Aerial Powers split a pair of free throws to pull the Fever within 13.
Hillmon’s triple and layup put the Dream ahead by 16 with less than two minutes left, icing Atlanta’s win.
Trailing by seven at halftime, Indiana began the second half on a 7-0 run, including Hull’s personal 5-0 spurt, to pull even at 40.
Jones and Gray’s layups were then followed with Howard’s 3-pointer to give Atlanta a 47-40 edge.
Mitchell’s layup cut Indiana’s deficit to three, but Hillmon then scored six straight points as part of an 8-2 Atlanta run. Hull’s layup and Mitchell’s free throws trimmed Atlanta’s lead to 58-53 entering the fourth.
After Indiana jumped out to a 15-6 lead, Atlanta cut its deficit to three entering the second quarter.
Behind 26-22, the Dream went on an 8-2 spurt — capped with Brittney Griner’s layup — midway through the second quarter to grab their first lead since the game’s opening minutes.
Mitchell’s layup knotted the score at 30 with 4:35 left in the first half, before Atlanta finished the first half on a 10-3 run, including Maya Caldwell’s layup to give the Dream a seven-point halftime lead.
–Field Level Media
