MINNEAPOLIS– Getting from Neiva, Colombia to Minneapolis isn't the easiest journey. And the Atlanta Dream can't wait for Erika de Souza's 3,100-plus mile trip from South America to be complete.
Because while the Dream was losing Game 1 of the WNBA Finals to the Minnesota Lynx, de Souza was on her way back from leading Brazil to the championship of the 2011 FIBA Americas Championship. While Brazil earned a spot in the 2012 London Olympics with the victory, the Dream missed its 6-5 center.
“Thank goodness that’s out of the way,” Dream coach Marynell Meadors said. “We get her back and she can help us win a few games here.”
While Atlanta won the final two games of the Eastern Conference Finals without de Souza by going with a small lineup, the lack of size became a liability against the bigger Lynx. Minnesota outrebounded the Dream by 12 and outscored Atlanta in the paint by 22 points. A season-low rebound total in Game 1 made it more difficult for the Dream to push the ball up the floor and score in transition.
How tough is the trip from South America? Despite the fact that the championship game was played Saturday night, de Souza still hadn’t reached Minneapolis by the time the Dream coaches and players met with the media on Monday afternoon. Flight difficulties in Colombia left the Dream not knowing exactly when de Souza would arrive. They hope it will be in time for Tuesday afternoon’s practice.
“I would love to be able to tell you yes,” Meadors said when asked if de Souza would practice on Tuesday. “And I’m probably going to hug her as soon as she walks in the door.”
While basketball is a team game and parts are often interchangeable, de Souza’s absence wasobvious. With the Dream playing with a small lineup in Game 1, Minnesota’s guards repeatedly found forward Rebekkah Brunson inside. Brunson, who hadn’t scored more than 15 points in any of the first five Lynx playoff games, finished with 26 points on 10-for-15 shooting while also grabbing 11 rebounds.
“Guards were guarding her for the most part most of the night,” said Minnesota forward, Collins Hill graduate and WNBA rookie of the year Maya Moore. “So we wanted to get it to her.”
Brunson and Taj McWilliams-Franklin shouldn’t have as much room to operate in Wednesday’s Game 2 or when the teams travel to Atlanta for Friday’s Game 3 and Sunday’s Game 4 (if necessary). While de Souza’s points and rebounds are important, her return can’t be measured simply with a box score.
“She does give us physicality,” Meadors said. “She does give us rebounds. She does give us a threat inside. That hurt us last night.”
When she does return, Meadors strongly indicated that she’ll go back to the lineup that was effective when the Dream finished the regular season by winning 17 of 22 games just to get into the playoffs. That means Sancho Lyttle, who didn’t score in Game 1, can move from center to power forward and Angel McCoughtry can return to being a scoring small forward instead of an undersized power forward.
The hope is that Lyttle will be able to return to the form that allowed her to average 10 points per game in the regular season.
“She’s basically a face up (power forward) who roams around and we’ve kind of taken her out of her game a little bit,” Meadors said. “She didn’t shoot the ball well, she didn’t have good looks, sometimes I don’t think she was really looking for her shot. We need for her to do that.”
Can de Souza’s return be the difference for the Dream? That’s difficult to predict, but the Atlanta players like their chances.
“Having Erika, that’s my huge comfort level down in the post,” Lindsey Harding said. “It’s going to be great to have her back. She’s great on the boards. She’s great scoring inside and we’re definitely going to look for that, look at the rebounds. We need here and everybody else to step up.”
Especially with the Dream already down 1-0 to Minnesota and now having lost four consecutive games in the WNBA Finals. A Game 2 loss to the Lynx wouldn’t guarantee that the Dream will again be swept, but it would make things very difficult.
And that’s why de Souza’s return is so welcome.
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