What do the Dream have to figure out as they look to take next step
The Dream got so close to achieving their goal of bringing a championship to the city of Atlanta. But they fell to the Valkyries 68-63 in Game 7 of the WNBA Finals on Saturday.
Now, they are left reflecting on what could have been before thinking about how they take the next step.
“I love our team,” Dream coach Karl Smesko said. “I’m proud of our players, the season they have had is remarkable. Obviously, it’s beyond frustrating that we didn’t finish what we set out to do today but it doesn’t change how I feel about our players. I love them.
“The effort they put in this year was remarkable, coming together as a team, fantastic. I feel very fortunate that I was around to coach them.”
The Dream finished the year as one of the best defenses in the WNBA after an undefeated run through the first round and semifinals of the playoffs. Then they gritted it out against the Valkyries, holding them under 70 points in six of the seven games of the series.
“From our end, for a series, we probably played the best defense you could play in a series without winning the series,” Smesko said.
“So, we’ve got to go back and figure out how we can make our offense more efficient and be in a situation even when you go against a great defense, we can kind of dictate the shots that we want a little better than we did consistently in this series.”
The Dream’s offense thrived when they could dictate the tone of the game, get into the Valkyries’ passing lanes and forcing turnovers that allowed them to get out and attack.
But when fatigue set in and they couldn’t sustain their pace, the offense went cold.
Ahead of Saturday’s Game 7, Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase said the team planned to make the Dream’s Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard uncomfortable. And they did.
The Valkyries held Gray and Howard to a combined 8-of-30 overall shooting and a combined 2-of-13 from 3. Gray made both of those 3s.
On top of that, the Valkyries limited Dream forward Angel Reese to just seven shot attempts, adjusting to her early explosiveness in the series.
“I think, well, one, they put excellent defenders on them,” Smesko said. “But for us, the movement and the screening, it never works — when you’re playing a great defensive team, and it’s just a lot of isolation, rather than working together to create shots it, just never worked for us in the series.
“For us, it was about pace, actions, get into the next action, and that’s when we got good shots. That was probably our biggest weakness in the series, was doing that consistently and I really thought that after Game 6, especially that first half, how we were playing offensively that, it would carry over until today. There’s really just too many empty possessions.”
So, the Dream head back to the drawing board. They have continuity on their several players under contract for the next two to three years.
“I told them I loved them and that I was really proud of everything that they accomplished this year, and that there were going to be no words to soften what we feel right now. And we’re going to have to feel it,” Smesko said of the message he had for his team.
“And then we’re going to have to learn from it, and then we’re going to have to come back and figure out how to get better. We congratulate Golden State for an incredible year, an incredible series here.”