What started out as a strong season for the Dream has turned sour in the last five games.
After starting the 2016 campaign with an Eastern Conference-leading 8-3 record, the team has lost five games in a row, shuffling them to third in the conference. The latest defeat, a nine-point loss to the Los Angeles Sparks, gives the Dream the longest current losing streak in the WNBA.
So, what’s changed during this drought for the Dream? There are several factors that have caused Atlanta to fade in the past two weeks.
Rebounding has been an issue for the Dream lately. While the team has done a solid job grabbing offensive boards in the recent losses, Atlanta has struggled to keep up with its opponents when on defense.
The Dream are 6-1 when registering more defensive rebounds than its opponents in 2016 but only did so once during the five-game losing streak, grabbing 24 defensive rebounds to Los Angeles’ 23 on June 30.
“As Pat Riley used to say, ‘No rebounds, no rings,” Dream coach Michael Cooper said after Atlanta’s loss to the Minnesota Lynx on June 10.
The inability to make the opposition pay for missed shots was a clear problem in Atlanta’s loss to the New York Liberty on June 22. The overtime battle saw the Liberty record 35 defensive rebounds to the Dream’s 24. Coincidentally, the Dream lost the game — at that point Atlanta’s second straight loss — by 11 points.
But the defense hasn’t been the only problem.
After averaging nearly 87 points per game in its hot start, the offense has sputtered since the win over Chicago on June 17, scoring just under 74 points per contest during that time. A large part of the problem has been struggles shooting from the field, as the team has shot at 40 percent or under in four of the five games.
With no true 3-point shooter on the floor, the Dream have relied heavily on shots from inside the arc to power their offense. When those aren’t falling, problems are bound to occur.
Atlanta had an excellent chance to right the ship against struggling teams such as San Antonio and Seattle but failed to do so, extending what could have been a quick slip-up into a more concerning situation.
If the Dream can’t figure things out against Phoenix on Sunday, the start of July will look just as ugly as the end of June.
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