COLLEGE PARK, GA – The wins continue to pile up for the Atlanta Dream down the stretch of the regular season, and they secured another victory in their last home game, defeating the Connecticut Sun 87-62. With the win, they improved their home record to 16-6 and now have 29 wins overall on the season.
The Dream have all the makings of a championship contender, and they'll be going into the postseason on a hot streak if they can defeat the Sun again in the regular season finale. The one person on the team who knows what it takes to win a championship is Brittney Griner, as she won in 2014 with the Phoenix Mercury.
After the game, Griner was asked what she thinks makes this Dream team capable of possibly winning a championship.
“Everybody's ready. When you get into the Finals, you get in the playoffs, it's always that extra player that you're not thinking of that someone's not thinking about, or somebody from the bench that needs to come in and step up,” Griner said. “It's always that sixth or seventh player, and I think we have that, honestly.
“From the starting five to everybody on the bench, we're ready to come in and do what we need to do, and coach has done an amazing job on challenging each and every one of us, and like. Like Naz [Hillmon] said, he really focuses on getting better himself, and you can see it.”
When the Dream are clicking like they did in the second half against the Sun, they can compete with any team in the league, and they have a roster deep enough to do so.
Dream have strong second half to defeat Sun
The Dream and Sun were neck and neck in the first half of the game, and it's no surprise with how hard the Sun have played this season. Saniya Rivers and Tina Charles led the way for the Sun in the first half with 10 points each, and the Dream couldn't find much momentum on either side of the ball.
It was a complete 180 for the Dream in the second half, and it was their defense that led the way and turned it into easy offense for them.
“We play our best offense is when we get stops, we're able to push and transition, find open players, and get the defenders in mismatches or just, you know, not quite matched up, but I think I was our defense locking in, defeating ball screens, not letting two of our players go with one of theirs and creating open shots for them,” Hillmon said.
“Connecticut did a great job, and they hit some tough shots, and they're still playing very well, but I thought we had another level that we could get to defensively,” head coach Karl Smesko said. “I thought we came out in the third quarter, and we kind of showed what we're capable of being on that end of the floor.”
On the offensive end, Rhyne Howard led the way with 12 points, but everyone contributed to help extend the lead, which was 28 at one point in the half. Just like Griner said, you never know who's going to show up on any given night, as the Dream had five players in double digits.
To finish the regular season, the Dream will face the Sun again on the road, and from there, the postseason begins.
