With the two teams on deep playoffs in playoffs in their respective conferences, Atlanta Dream welcomes the best Lynx in Minnesota in a potential overview of the WNBA final on Thursday in College Park, Georgia.
Minnesota (28-6) had its sequence of six consecutive victories on Tuesday in a defeat of 85-75 on the road against New York freedom. The Lynx still holds an advance of 6 1/2 on the Liberty and the dream of the best record in the League, while they sit in seven games before the Phoenix Mercury and Las Vegas Aces at the top of the Western Conference classification.
Lynxs are in pace to beat a franchise victory record in a single season, but they still want to avoid hiccups like Tuesday – a match they dragged during the last 38 minutes.
“It was a surprise for me in terms of how we did not start the ready game,” said Minnesota head coach Cheryl Reeve. “Our starters were not ready, and it was surprising. Credit in New York, they obtained the ball. … Their runners played well, ours did not do it.”
For the point of Reeve, 38 of the 75 points of the Minnesota came from the reserves Natisha Hiedeman (16 points), Dijonai Carrington (11 points) and Maria Kliundikova (11 points). Napheesa Collier (23.5 ppg), the top scorer in the league, missed five consecutive games with a right ankle injury, but has a chance to return on Thursday.
Atlanta (22-13) will set a franchise brand in a single season with two other victories, but has lost two of the three since its production of a sequence of six consecutive victories. Despite the setback of the 74-72 of the dream in the Aces of Las Vegas on Tuesday, the Atlanta recruit coach Karl Pmesko – coach of the year – is happy to return home after a six -game road trip.
“I am proud of the way our players have contributed throughout this trip to every game,” said Pmesko. “A few matches in The Wire did not go in our direction and it will be the great thing in the future. But I am proud of our team for what we have been able to do during this trip. You have to go beyond it, learn what you can and be ready to compete a day later. We continue to get better and we will be in good position at the end of the year.”
Allisha Gray leads Atlanta with 18.5 points per game, followed by Rhyne Howard’s 16.5 and Bonna Jones ’12, 7.
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