After winning two games during the longest road trip of the season, the Dream were hoping to snatch more wins when they returned home last week. Instead they were winless during that homestand to lower their record to 3-23. Friday’s narrow loss to the Washington Mystics was an especially tough one to swallow. The Dream trailed by just three at the half, and quickly went on a run to go up 53-49 with 6:34 to go.
“There were spurts where we played really well,” said head coach Marynell Meadors after the game.
Unfortunately, it was a spurt of bad play in the rest of the quarter that cost the Dream the game. Washington took the lead back just over a minute later, and the quarter ended with the Dream trailing 70-59.
If not for the poor close to the third, Atlanta may have won. An Ivory Latta 3-pointer pulled the Dream within 76-75 with 3:47 to go. But on Atlanta’s next three possessions, Latta missed a 3-point attempt and turned the ball over twice.
“She just turned the ball over,” Meadors said. “She made some bad decisions.”
The final score was 81-75. Iziane Castro-Marques led the way with 23 points and six rebounds.
Meanwhile, Betty Lennox, the team’s season-leading scorer, played just 12 minutes. She wasn’t happy about it, either.
“You can’t pull me out like I’m a rookie when I make a mistake or miss a shot,” she said afterwards.
Lennox started Sunday’s 86-76 loss to the New York Liberty on the bench. The Dream closed out the weekend with their fifth straight loss to the New York Liberty. Atlanta trailed just 57-56 after the third. Lennox played 28 minutes and led the team in scoring with 18 points.
DESOUZA RETURNS
Last week also featured the return of Erika DeSouza, who was a strong force in the low post before being hurt in just the third game of the season. She finished with six points and four rebounds in 12-plus minutes of play on Friday against Washington. She led the team in minutes on Sunday, scoring nine points and grabbing 11 rebounds.
“She’s wonderful,” Meadors said. “If Erika had been playing [throughout the season] I think we would have won a lot more games.”
OLYMPIC BREAK BEGINS
The Dream now join the WNBA in a month-long hiatus for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. They return to the court at the end of August with a home game against the Connecticut Sun on Aug. 29 and a trip to Indiana to face the Fever on Aug. 30.
“Each player is going to get six days off, and when we come back together at the end of August we’ll work on team things,” Meadors said.
Bagriansky can be reached at jbagriansky@scoreatl.com.
Loading ...
