There’s a truism in basketball that the first home game after a long road trip feels like another road game.
The Atlanta Dream proved the validity of that idea on Friday night, with a flat performance resulting in a nearly 20-point loss to the Portland Fire.
On Sunday afternoon, re-acclimated and agitated, the real Dream returned. Or, maybe the realest Dream.
For the second-straight season, the Dream secured the season series win over the Minnesota Lynx, preventing the league leaders from clinching
the No. 1 seed in the WNBA playoffs with an 89-81 win. The Atlanta victory also handed Minnesota a second-straight loss for only the second time this season.
The urgency that was absent on Friday appeared with a fury on Sunday as the Dream effectively disrupted the Lynx offense on one end, evidenced by holding Rookie of the Year frontrunner and MVP candidate Olivia Miles to zero assists for only the second time this season, before executing with alacrity on the other.
Allisha Gray kickstarted things for Atlanta, both attacking the basket and draining 3s as she scored 18 of her game-high 23 points in the first half. In second half, Rhyne Howard came alive, not just scoring all of her 16 points but also seeming to score them all at just the right moments, with her triples and tough takes neutralizing any threat Minnesota tried to muster. Jordin Canada effectively picked her spots to punish the Lynx with lightning-quick drives, finishing with 16 points in addition to dishing 10 dimes. Naz Hillmon’s stat line may have been a modest seven points and three rebounds, but the Dream outscored the Lynx by a game-high 21 points in her minutes, testifying to her winning impact.
And then there was Angel Reese, relentless as ever as she secured her 29th double-double of the season. Her 15 points and 11 rebounds established a new WNBA single-season record.
The previous mark belong the partner (Alyssa Thomas) of her newest teammate, as DeWanna Bonner made her Dream debut, taking the court to standing ovation before scoring seven points, including a 3-pointer assisted by Reese, in her 17 minutes.
It was the kind of performance that made it conceivable that DeWanna could, in fact, achieve her final championship Dream in Atlanta.
Fortunately, Christina Merrion, Swish Appeal’s contributing photographer, opted to attend Sunday’s game, not Friday’s. Here’s are the scenes she captured from before, during and after what might have been Atlanta’s best win of the season.
