With the help of a 47-point first half, the Atlanta Dream held off multiple fourth-quarter runs from the New York Liberty in an 81-72 victory at McCamish Pavilion on Sunday.
The win broke a three-game losing streak for Atlanta and brought its record to 6-7. New York fell back to .500 with the loss.
“It was a very tough game for us,” coach Michael Cooper said. “It’s always hard when you lose two in a row … to bounce back like we did, I’m very proud of these women. They came out and played hard and we were able to pull out a win against a very good basketball team.”
An 8-0 run that took just one minute early in the fourth quarter brought the Liberty within single digits for the first time since the opening quarter. With a 70-62 lead, Brittney Sykes converted a crucial 3-point play to halt New York’s momentum and put the Dream ahead 11 with 5:17 left.
After swapping buckets for the next few minutes, Williams dropped in a layup off a critical jump ball to give the Dream a 77-69 lead with 1:28 remaining. Atlanta forced another stop and Sykes hit the dagger with a pull-up jumper, making it a double-digit game with less than a minute left.
Despite all the runs from New York, the Dream quickly answered each time and never let the Liberty get within five points after the first quarter.
“When we got down and we went through a little lull and they came back … teams are going to score, but we didn’t get down,” Cooper said. “In the past, teams would go on a run on us and we’d kind of sink in on ourselves, but tonight we just stayed on top of it.”
Perhaps the key in the turnaround for Atlanta was point guard Layshia Clarendon. After struggling in the losing streak, she bounced back with 15 points and nine assists. Controlling the tempo and movement of the Dream’s offense, she committed just one turnover all night.
“There goes a saying; so goes your point guard, so goes your team. And Layshia hasn’t played well the last three or four games and we struggled,” Cooper said. “So, when she plays well, she has great command of the game, and she’s running our offense the way it’s supposed to be run. It’s not about her always scoring, but when she does score, it helps our offense run a little more smoothly.”
Clarendon felt like the key for her turnaround was to quit thinking so much and getting more aggressive.
“I’ve been struggling the last couple games, started to overthink it a bit,” Clarendon said. “You get in that rut of losing, so it was really just like, I need to get in attack mode tonight and get back to what I know how to be.”
Sykes led the Dream with 19 points on 9-of-16 shooting. When Atlanta needed a basket, she often responded with a tough drive to the rim or a quick pull-up jumper. She also added nine rebounds.
“You saw her explosiveness on offense, her ability to go rebound,” Cooper said. “She’s seeing her way through our offense now. She’s figuring out when she can shoot the ball, when she can’t. We’re trying to make the game really easy for her and let her use her athleticism.”
The Dream kept their tempo up in the first period, getting six fast-break points on five field goal attempts compared to just one attempt for the Liberty. Clarendon and Sykes relentlessly worked to get to the basket. Both led the team with eight points apiece in the quarter. Leading 14-11 with 4:16 remaining, Atlanta went on a 13-4 run to close out the first.
Atlanta kept the pace up early in the second quarter, building a game-high 20-point lead with a 13-5 run in the opening five minutes.
New York quickly cut back into the lead with a 7-0 run in the next 1:30, but Atlanta closed out the half strongly with a couple of key buckets from Sykes. Taking a 47-31 lead into the locker room, the Dream shot 44.7 percent in the first half and got to the line eight more times than New York. Atlanta limited mistakes in the half, turning the ball over just three times while the Liberty had seven.
With the Dream’s offense becoming stagnant for the first time in the third quarter, New York showed signs of life with a 9-0 run spanning over three minutes that brought it within 11 points. Atlanta, once again, responded by shutting out the Liberty over the final minute and a half of the period and taking a 63-49 lead into the fourth quarter.
“What we try to do as a coaching staff is simplify our game plan,” Cooper said. “I thought the zone (defense) really worked against this team … jumping in and out of it threw them off a bit and that enabled us to do what we do well and that’s get down the floor in transition.”
The Dream will be back in action on Wednesday when they play at Dallas.
About the Author
