Dream finally win a playoff game — now, it’s on to winning series

The Dream doubled their win total from last season with 30 wins this year. That’s the most wins in franchise history. Good for the Dream, but that doesn’t make it the best season in franchise history.

Great seasons are made in the playoffs. That means the Dream’s best years are runs to the WNBA finals in 2010, ’11 and ’13. They haven’t won a playoff series since 2013. The Dream finally have a team that can make another deep run — but first, they just had to win a playoff game.

Atlanta hadn’t done that in seven years.

“We knew that,” forward Rhyne Howard said after the Dream beat Indiana on Sunday to end their postseason losing streak at six games. “This is Naz (Hillmon) and I’s first home game in the playoffs, period. To accomplish that and get home-court advantage, we knew we had to make it a good one.”

So, that’s what the Dream did.

The 80-68 victory at Gateway Center Arena was Atlanta’s first playoff victory since Aug. 31, 2018. With that out of the way, the Dream will look to make it to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2016 (only one win was necessary to advance that year).

Atlanta is in control of this series after getting swept in the first round of the playoffs in each of the past two seasons. The Dream can eliminate the Fever with a victory in Game 2 on Tuesday in Indiana. Fail to do that, and the series returns here for a decisive Game 3 on Thursday.

The Dream won’t blow this. They closed the season with six straight victories and 14 in the final 17 games to earn the No. 3 seed. Before the series, ESPN’s BPI statistical projection gave Atlanta a 67% of chance of advancing and a 14% chance of winning the WNBA championship.

First, the Dream just had to win a game.

They did it by overcoming a rough start and turning back Indiana’s rally early in the second half. Atlanta knows all about blown chances, but I don’t see how the Fever can rally to win this series.

Howard (20 points) and Allisha Gray (20 points) are a great scoring duo. Brionna Jones and Naz Hillmon form a formidable front line. The Dream are strong at both ends of the floor and on the bench. That’s too much for the Fever to handle with so many key players out with injuries.

The list includes All-Star guard Caitlin Clark and starter Sophie Cunningham. Yet, the Dream couldn’t come into this series relaxed because Indiana showed grit by making it to the playoffs despite five players suffering season-ending injuries. The Fever immediately showed Atlanta that they mean business.

Apparently, the Fever believe that pushing the pace is their best chance to win this series. That’s probably the right idea. The Dream played at the second-slowest pace during the season, so maybe they would be uncomfortable with a fast game.

It looked that way early in Game 1. The Fever played at a furious pace during a 9-0 run that gave them a 15-6 lead. Gray missed two layups while trying to match Indiana’s tempo.

“They pay with a lot of pace,” Dream coach Karl Smesko said “They are flying around. They really put a lot of pressure on your help defense. I thought in the second quarter we really settled in and forced a lot of tough shots and forced a few more turnovers.

“We really needed it because the first five minutes were a little rough.”

The Dream got back in the game by tightening their half-court defense. After starting 4-of-7 from the field, Indiana was 8-for-27 during the rest of the half. The Dream led 40-33 at the break. Indiana erased that deficit with a 7-0 run to open the second half, and the Dream responded with their own 7-0 run.

Atlanta never gave back the lead from there. The advantage was 63-53 in the fourth quarter when the Fever lost their composure over the shoddy officiating.

Indiana coach Stephanie White was called for a technical foul. Fever guard Odyssey Sims was called for one a few moments later. The Dream kept their cool. They never let their lead dip below 10 points over the game’s final 8:52.

The Fever will hope for a more favorable whistle in Game 2. Center Aliyah Boston’s foul trouble stymied them in Game 1. Indiana is likely to shoot better, too. The Fever missed 13 of 15 3-point tries in Game 1. They ranked fourth in the league in 3-point shooting (34.6%) this season.

The Dream hired Smesko as coach in November. He told his players at the first meeting that the team is aiming higher.

“We made it clear that we had really big goals,” Smesko said. “We were not going to be satisfied with everyone saying, ‘Oh, you really improved.’ We are trying to win a championship.”