NEW YORK (AP) — Breanna Stewart and the New York Liberty have been in this spot often in the last few seasons.
New York will be making its third appearance in the semifinals of the WNBA playoffs in the past four years when the Liberty play the Atlanta Dream on Sunday in Game 1 of the best-of-five series.
“Experience in the playoffs definitely matters,” Stewart said Friday before practice. “There’s so many things (during a longer series) that you have
to stay focused on the end goal."
That end goal would be reaching the WNBA Finals and trying to win a second title in three seasons.
“With this group, for the majority of us, (we’ve) been in this type of series, where it’s not getting too high or too low is the huge important part,” Stewart said. “And what we did in the first round is great — we’re happy to be here — but that wasn’t a goal for our season to get out of the first round.”
New York was dominant in the first round while sweeping the Minnesota Lynx, becoming the first No. 8 seed to eliminate a No. 1 seed in the league’s 30-year history.
“The approach that we’re having in these playoffs is pretty much where you want to be,” Stewart added. “We’re the ones that are staying poised, staying under control at all times. But we’re gonna be aggressive for the full 40 minutes, and if you want something, you’re gonna have to go through us to get it."
Atlanta is the newcomer to this round, advancing this far for the first time since 2018. Aware of the team's lack of playoff experience other than Jordin Canada, Dream GM Dan Padover went out and got DeWanna Bonner as a free agent in late August. Bonner has played 100 games in the playoffs, the most in league history.
She joined a stacked lineup that includes Rhyne Howard, Allisha Gray and Angel Reese. That group lifted the Dream to their first playoff win since 2016 when they swept the Washington Mystics.
“I think the pace that they were playing with was really good,” Liberty coach Chris DeMarco said. "I think (Bonner) brought a lot of veteran leadership to them, a lot of timely scoring to really settle them into games. I think Howard and Gray are just two really good — or great guards that we have to slow down. When the game gets tough, they kind of put their heads down and kind of take over that scoring.”
The Atlanta Dream had one of the best defenses in the league this year, anchored by the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Angel Reese. Atlanta led the league in steals per game (9.1), which it converted to 18.1 points per game. The Dream raised that in the playoffs, scoring 27 points off miscues in their Game 1 win over Washington and getting 23 more in the clincher.
They are very active getting into passing lanes, which makes scoring in transition difficult.
The two teams met in the final two games of the regular season with the No. 4 seed on the line, and the Dream won both those contests. Stewart sat out the second game to get some rest heading into the playoffs. Neither team puts much stock in the value of those two games, other than they provided fresh film to both sides from late in the season.
The Dream will play the first two games of the semifinals in State Farm Arena, home of the Atlanta Hawks. Atlanta played six regular-season games at the arena, which seats more than 17,000 fans. The Dream's usual home, the Gateway Center Arena, holds about 3,500. Atlanta played Game 1 of its series against the Mystics at State Farm Arena. If the Dream win in the semifinals, it's unclear what they'll do for the Finals since singer Sombr is performing there the night of Game 3 and the Hawks have their home opener the same evening as Game 4.
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