A new month began for the Dream Tuesday night, and it did not start well.
After tearing through the WNBA in June, the Dream met defeat against a familiar nemesis, the Indiana Fever.
Indiana controlled the action nearly the entire night at Philips Arena, giving the Dream a 77-70 defeat before an ESPN2 audience. The Dream had won eight of their 10 games in June, including a 76-68 win at Indiana on Sunday.
“They’re a grab team, they’re a bump team, they’re a bang team,” Dream coach Michael Cooper said. “They make you work for everything.”
Center Erika de Souza was the Dream’s only consistent option on offense, scoring 23 points on 9-for-12 shooting. She was not immune, however, to the Dream’s clumsy effort at the free-throw line. They made 20 of 32 free-throw attempts, a season-worst 62.5 percent, with de Souza 5-for-9.
It proved the difference in the game. Both teams shot poorly from the field – Indiana shot 34.8 percent and the Dream shot 36.8 percent, just off their season low – but Indiana made 27 of 30 tries from the line, its best rate of the season.
The Dream, sitting in first place in the Eastern Conference, were not their typically efficient selves on offense. They failed to create many open looks and did not take much advantage of their cleaner shots at the basket.
“I felt like I should have been a little smarter with my passing tonight,” forward Angel McCoughtry said. “That could have helped a little bit.”
It was not a performance representative of a team that had cleared the 80-point mark six times in 10 games in June, but perhaps typical of one that was playing the same opponent for the second time in three nights.
“We’re not going to let this one keep us down,” guard Tiffany Hayes said, “because, like I said, Coach (Cooper) tells us every day that we’re a championship team, so we definitely have to move forward after this.”
The Fever gave the Dream more problems than they’ve been giving anyone of late. Going into Tuesday’s game, Indiana’s past five opponents had shot 49 percent or better from the field.
“We had some clean looks,” Cooper said. “I think we just were missing, but they were contesting everything.”
Said guard Tiffany Hayes, “I think we beat ourselves, definitely.”
De Souza, though, continued her bid for her third all-star selection. Entering the game, the Brazilian was 10th in the league in scoring (15.7 points per game) and third in rebounding (9.7). She scored in a variety of ways, often on putbacks and slips to the basket.
“She had another great game, so I’m proud of her,” McCoughtry said. “Hopefully next time we’ll help her a little better.”
McCoughtry added 15 points on 6-for-18 shooting. She, de Souza, and Sancho Lyttle led the team with eight rebounds.
Curiously, Indiana (7-9) is now 2-0 against the Dream at Philips, while the rest of the league is 0-7.
Despite their inefficiency, the Dream had a chance to seize the game inside the final minute despite not having led since the first quarter. Down 71-70 with one minute to play, Hayes appeared to have taken her third charge of the game, wiping out a basket by Fever guard Sydney Carter and giving the Dream the ball with 57.5 seconds remaining. But after video review, Hayes was judged to have been inside the no-charge arc, giving Carter the basket and a free throw. She made it for a 74-70 lead.
“I thought I was there like the last two, but obviously, I wasn’t,” Hayes said. “They reviewed it and they thought otherwise, so it’s their call. Like always, it’s their call.”
