Playing without their best player, the Dream seemingly twice had New York beat in both teams' season-opener at Philips Arena on Sunday.
Instead, the Liberty hit an ugly 3-pointer with 8.8 seconds remaining to force a tie and then another baseline jumper with .2 seconds remaining to force overtime, where it eventually pulled away for a 94-88 win.
If Atlanta (0-1), the pick to win the Eastern Conference and return to the WNBA finals, could have hit its free throws or boxed out it would have been a different game. The Dream missed 10 of its 28 free-throw attempts and the Liberty pulled down 10 offensive rebounds that contributed to 52 points in the free-throw lane.
"We didn't have that defensive game today," coach Marynell Meadors said.
There are many reasons for that, including the absence of Angel McCoughtry, who helped the Dream eliminate New York in the Eastern Conference finals last year. She averaged 31.5 points, a 10.4-point increase over her season average, on 45.7-percent shooting in the best-of-three series. However, she hasn't been able to participate in most of the preseason practices because of a sprained left knee suffered in practice on May 25. She is listed as day to day. The Dream's next home game is against Washington on Thursday.
"To not have her in the lineup certainly hurts us," Meadors said. "It takes 25-to-30 points out and the defensive things she does and steals she gets, it affects the rest of the team."
Injuries in the preseason, not only to McCoughtry but to Iziane Castro Marques and Sancho Lyttle, combined with playing just one preseason game, have made it hard for the Dream to get into a rhythm on offense or defense. Castro Marques still led the team with 19 points on Sunday. The absence of a regular rotation also seemed to most affect point guard Lindsey Harding.
Acquired in a draft-day trade, Harding was expected to provide the Dream with defense and scoring and leadership in the half-court offense. She instead looked out-of-sync in the first half, committing three turnovers and scoring two points with one assist. She was benched for more than eight minutes in the first half after committing an out-of-control turnover. Meadors said she wants to see her point guard dribble less and save some of the shot clock.
Harding started to find her rhythm in the second half, contributing seven of her nine points with eight assists and just one turnover. She had a chance to seal the win, but could make just one of two free throws with 18.9 seconds remaining that kept the Dream's lead at three, 77-74.
The Liberty's Nicole Powell hit an off-balance, one-handed 3-pointer in the corner to tie the game at 74 with 8.8 seconds remaining.
Harding came back and hit a pull-up jumper in the free-throw lane to give the Dream a 79-77 lead with 3.2 seconds remaining. She realized as soon as she hit it that she left too much time on the clock.
"I was like ‘Oh no, I should have waited longer,' " she said.
New York's Sidney Spencer answered with a baseline jumper – her only shot attempt – on a broken play to tie the game with less than a second remaining.
New York closed it out in overtime, outscoring Atlanta 15-9 including six more points in the paint because Meadors said the team didn't rotate well defensively, which is where McCoughtry would have been had she played.
"We let it get away," said Lyttle, who scored 18 points.
Harding said the team will regroup for Thursday, comfortable knowing that despite the many things it did poorly, it still had a chance to win.
"We aren't even playing close to our best," she said.
