Dream coach Michael Cooper said it’s too early to panic, but there are worrying signs after his team dropped its second consecutive game to open the season with a 75-70 loss to the Connecticut Sun on Sunday in the team’s home opener at Philips Arena.
Atlanta (0-2) lost despite out-rebounding the Sun 51-25 and forcing them to miss 14 of their 21 3-point attempts. The Dream hurt themselves by committing 25 turnovers that the Sun (1-1) turned into 31 points. Atlanta has 44 turnovers in two games.
“It’s early in the season,” Cooper said. “I feel much better about this game than the last game. I thought we gave this away with turnovers. We aren’t going to win many games like that.”
Turnovers aren’t the only thing to be worried about.
Atlanta played the final 3 minutes, 38 seconds without leader and leading-scorer Angel McCoughtry due to what Cooper said was a coach’s decision. He said her absence had nothing to do with her slapping the net in frustration following a layup by Connecticut’s Jasmine Thomas that gave the Sun an 11-point lead with 3:38 left.
McCoughtry said she didn’t know why she didn’t play during the crucial time. She said she had no reaction other to cheer on the team and that she didn’t plan on talking to Cooper about it.
“It’s his decision; he’s the coach and that’s what I have to abide by,” she said.
McCoughtry finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and a team-high six turnovers. She was also called for a technical foul in the first half after becoming entangled with a Connecticut player.
Matee Ajavon, in her first action of the game and on the floor because McCoughtry wasn’t, completed a three-point play to give Atlanta some hope with an eight-point deficit and 3:24 left.
Atlanta continued to fight back. Ajavon hit two free throws and found Sancho Lyttle for a 6-foot jumper to pull Atlanta to within 70-68 with 1:14 left.
With the crowd cheering, Shoni Schimmel’s attempt to hit a game-winning 3-pointer resulted in airball with 2:14 left. The officials failed to notice that a Connecticut defender hit Schimmel’s arm as she shot. She finished with six points on 2-for-10 shooting. She also committed five turnovers.
Still, Atlanta wasn’t done, even though it surrendered double-digit leads in the first half and second half.
Thomas missed a running jumper, but Atlanta couldn’t grab the rebound and Erika de Souza fouled Kelly Faris with 18.8 seconds left. She hit one of the two free throws to give the Sun a 71-68 lead.
After an Atlanta timeout, Thomas made up for the miss by stealing the inbounds pass. The Dream were forced to foul and she hit both free throws for a 73-68 lead with 12.6 seconds left.
Thomas and Alex Bentley, two of four former Dream players on the Sun, combined to score 30 points. They were consistently able to beat Schimmel off the dribble and get into the free-throw lane.
“It was fun to see some of the fans that I got along with when I was here, and I’m just happy to be here with a good team and get a win,” Thomas said.
Cooper said the team has three practices to work on defending pick and rolls, passing and solidify rotations before their next game against San Antonio on Thursday at Philips Arena.
“We will rebound; we will come back from this,” Cooper said.
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