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With a few games remaining in the season, the Atlanta Dream are still fighting for the No. 8 seed in the playoffs. The Chicago Sky and the Washington Mystics are the two other teams in the hunt, but the Dream control their own destiny. With all three teams at 13 wins and two games remaining, the stakes have never been higher, and every minute counts.
Dream head coach Tanisha Wright has been preaching fight for the past few games, and she says the message to the team has stayed the same.
“We said that these last games we were gonna have to fight for our lives, fight for our playoff lives, and that's exactly what they're doing win, lose, or draw,” Wright said. “They've been relentless at just taking punches, throwing punches, and fighting.”
The players also know how important every game is, and they'll tell you that only one thing matters at this point of the season: win.
“We gotta win. Point, blank, and simple,” Canada said. “However we can get a win. Good, bad, or ugly, it doesn’t matter. We just need to come out with a win.”
The Dream control their own playoff destiny
The Atlanta Dream may need some help getting into the playoffs, but at the end of the day, all they can focus on is winning the games. If the Dream do win their remaining games, and the Washington Mystics lose one of their games, then the Dream are in.
For the past couple of games, the Dream have gone into overtime with a few teams, but head coach Tanisha Wright isn't worried about if the team may be tired. At this point in the season, every team is either tired or hurt, but it's their will to win that helps them to continue to fight to the end.
“We’re playing basketball for a living. We have to have a will to want to win, a will to want to continue our season, to get into the postseason. It’s a hard thing to do. It's not easy to do in this league. This league is very, very hard, night in, night out, no matter who you're playing, you know you're playing somebody tough. I hope, and I don't think so with this team, that I have to cheerlead them on to how they need to show up in order to keep their playoff hopes alive,” Wright said. “I think it's an inner thing, an inner motivation that has to come out, that you have to have a stronger will to win and get things done.”
Naz Hillmon mentioned that the last few games have felt like playoff games, but they can't put too much stress on the moment.
“You kind of do have to think about it like that, but not put all of that stress of a playoff game on you. Obviously knowing what you can do, what your strengths and weaknesses are, and take those head-on,” Hillmon said. “It is kind of starting to get that way, especially with the teams that we’re playing the next three games, all fighting for that last spot, so it is kind of starting to feel like the playoffs in terms of the sense of urgency and the focus for every single play, but that’s just what it is at this point.”
