Two teams looking for a positive step forward collide when the Atlanta Dream host the New York Liberty on Sunday afternoon in College Park, Ga.
The defending champion Liberty have lost three of their last four games and gave up a season-high 106 points in a loss at Phoenix on Friday night.
New York (11-4) is playing without starters Jonquel Jones, who is out with an ankle injury for another three weeks, and Leonie Fiebich, who is playing for Germany in EuroBasket through the end of June, but coach Sandy Brondello doesn’t see that as an excuse for the Liberty’s slide.
“A lot of teams have lost EuroBasket players. Competing is something that’s within,” Brondello said Friday. “I don’t care who’s not with us. They’re not going to save us. This is it and we need to find a way to dig deeper.”
Atlanta (10-6) has lost two in a row and is coming off Friday’s 96-92 overtime loss to league-leading Minnesota. The Dream trailed big early in a game that was delayed eight minutes when the power went out due to thunderstorms in the area.
“To be honest, we were kind of wondering if the game was going to continue,” said Atlanta coach Karl Smesko. “The officials were saying we might not be able to continue if it wasn’t a safe environment for the players. Fortunately, the light situation got fixed.”
Atlanta had the ball at the end of regulation with a chance to win but was unable to get a clean look. Smesko said his team needs to focus on executing down the stretch.
“We just have to take that next step,” he said. “We have to be able to finish some of these games off and that’s something we will be spending more time working on in practice.”
An example of the Dream’s late struggles came in their first meeting with the Liberty on June 17. Atlanta blew a 17-point third quarter lead and watched the Liberty pull away for an 86-81 win. Sabrina Ionescu had 34 points for New York in that win.
Ionescu enters Sunday’s contest averaging 18.9 points, second on the team to Breanna Stewart (20.7). New York leads the WNBA in scoring a game at 87.8 points per game.
Allisha Gray leads the Dream with 19.5 points a game, followed by Rhyne Howard with 17.5.
–Field Level Media
