Long on losses, short on answers and freshly plastered into a record book she'd rather burn than read, Atlanta Dream coach Marynell Meadors might have moved closer to a solution Sunday afternoon if she'd taken 30 steps down the sideline.

There, in Philips Arena after Detroit whipped Atlanta 97-76 and dropped the Dream to 0-13 in their debut WNBA season, she could have visited with the only other person who's been in this mess before.

TODD R. MCQUEEN /Special (ENLARGE)

The Dream's Ivory Latta, who scored 26 points, drives hard against Detroit's Katie Smith.

Photos: Dream lose 13th Dream trade forward More on Dream

Shock coach/general manager Bill Laimbeer took over an 0-10 Detroit team in 2002 and fell to 0-13 to set the WNBA record for futility the Dream have tied.

His '02 team later won eight of its final 15, and in 2003, the Shock won the title.

So, Meadors might have asked, what is the formula for raising a shipwreck?

"Defense and rebounding wins; there's no question about it," Laimbeer said.

Detroit, which also won the title in '06, routinely leads the WNBA or is close in rebounding.

The Dream? Soft as cream.

Atlanta was out-rebounded 44-30, 59-39 counting team rebounds.

Meadors' team grabbed four offensive rebounds, or 13.3 percent of those available. Detroit grabbed the other 86.7 percent (26 defensive rebounds).

That's not getting beat; that's getting skinned alive.

"I think they have to have that aggression within," Meadors said. "There's nothing I can do to teach them to be aggressive; they're either aggressive or they're not. Right now, we're not. Our guards are aggressive."

Make that one guard.

Second-year pro Ivory Latta, traded from Detroit (10-3) before the season, scored a career-high 26 points on 5 of 6 3-point shots, adding a game-high nine assists.

The other guard, leading scorer Betty Lennox, sprained a knee in the first quarter and finished with three points — or 15 fewer than usual.

Detroit is loaded, with Olympian Katie Smith (16 points, five assists), former Georgia standout Deanna Nolan (seven points, seven assists) and Karl Malone's daughter Cheryl Ford (20 points, 12 rebounds).

Add rookie Tasha Humphrey, a former Georgia star, and here's what you get:

After a Latta 3-pointer pulled Atlanta to within 68-60 with 47 seconds left in the third quarter, the Shock spread the floor.

With Nolan and the ball at the top of the 3-point arc, Smith — the all-time leading scorer in women's professional basketball — set up outside the arc beyond the left elbow and motioned to Humphrey to back into the left corner.

When Nolan drove, Atlanta shut down the drive and prevented the kickout pass to Smith. But nobody defended Humphrey. Her long-ball (she made 3 of 4) was another of dozens of daggers into the Dream.

Humphrey finished with 16 points, nine rebounds, three assists and five steals in what amounted to game of pick your poison for Atlanta. Detroit led 74-60 after three.

"You know what? It's definitely mental," Latta said. "You have people saying, 'Man, you're 0-13.' That mentally gets to you, and you get down on yourself."

When you get crushed on the offensive boards like the Dream (18-4), you're likely to get whipped 29-5 in second-chance points.

There is little question that the Dream need to toughen up. It likely will take a makeover — of psychological approach and/or personnel — to pull it off.

"I went with the players that I thought were going to be long-term and designed stuff around them," Laimbeer said of how he reshaped the Shock six years ago. "At the end of the season, I moved people out of that I didn't want anymore and brought in fresh faces."