Nearly 10,000 fans showed up Friday night to welcome the Dream into Atlanta's consciousness, and the Dream played like they want them back.

In the inaugural WNBA game at Philips Arena, and their second game ever, the expansion Dream surprised the Detroit Shock by taking an 18-point lead in the first half before waking up to an 88-76 loss. It was former University of Georgia Lady Bulldog Deanna Nolan doing most of the pinching, scoring 24 of her 33 points in the second half for Detroit.

Allen Sullivan / AJC (ENLARGE)

Dream guard Ivory Latta got the crowd fired up at Philips Arena for Friday's home opener.

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"What a great setting for our team, with the support of a sell-out crowd," Dream coach Marynell Meadors said of the announced crowd of 10,185. "We saw one of the better teams in the league tonight, and Deanna Nolan was awesome. But I can see we really made a lot of progress from last Saturday to tonight.

"We played much more aggressively and played defense like we're capable of. Offensively, we didn't hit our shots in the second half."

The Dream (0-2) showed the locals a little of their energy, the skills of guard Betty Lennox (21 points), the fire of Ivory Latta (her first-quarter buzzer-beater fired up the crowd) and the post presence of Brazilian newcomer Erika De Souza (18 rebounds to go with 10 points). They were fun to watch for NBA dignitaries in the crowd such as former Hawk Kevin Willis, who watched from a front-row seat next to Dominique Wilkins, Josh Smith and Dwight Howard.

"They came out like they've been playing here since the league started," Willis noted at halftime. "I like what I see. They're energetic. They've got some size. It's been a tremendous showing, and they have good support."

Lennox scored the Dream's first basket at Philips, Camille Little scored the last, and in between, the hodge-podge new team played like the better one for long stretches early.

Highlighted by a dozen points from Lennox, the Dream made a 28-5 run in the first half, holding the Shock without a field goal for 10 minutes in one stretch.

But then Nolan heated up, scoring 13 points in the third quarter to help erase a 13-point Dream halftime lead. She tied the score 61-61 on a layup with 41 seconds to go in the third quarter and went on to score Detroit's next four baskets, including a 3-pointer to put them up 70-65.

When she made two free throws with 4:33 left, she had scored 15 consecutive points. She banged her elbow late in a collision and had to leave the game, but it was well decided by then.

"When Deanna rolls off three screens, it's hard to keep up," Meadors said. "We tried to switch, and we just couldn't keep up. Not to take anything away from her."

Lennox said the loss was tough to take given the lead they had, but "we're young and we're new. But we're not going to use that as an excuse."

"We're going to be a pretty good team," Meadors said. "Just give us a chance to get to know each other."

Enjoying it all from courtside was Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.

"This is a great turnout for a holiday weekend," said Franklin, acknowledging some no-shows in the announced attendance. "For Atlanta to take its place as a sports-and-entertainment-and-arts town, that's important to represent women's sports as well."

— Staff writer Michelle Hiskey contributed to this report.