Dream hope third time is the charm

More than two weeks ago, after a dispirited loss to Washington, an aggravated Angel McCoughtry sat in her locker and defiantly said she wanted to win a championship with the Dream.

She will take that first step Sunday when her team takes on Minnesota in Game 1 of the WNBA finals. It is the Dream’s third time in the championship in four years. They have yet to win a title — they actually have yet to win a game in the finals — underscoring McCoughtry’s frustration following that 71-56 loss to the Mystics in the first game of the Eastern Conference semifinals. It looked as the Dream wouldn’t get another chance this year.

The Dream, of course, advanced, and a happier McCoughtry repeated her desire Wednesday.

“This town wants it more than any other town in the United States,” she said. “They want it so bad, and we do too having already gotten to taste it and been teased two times. So, we might as well go ahead and win it.”

The Dream bounced back from the loss to Washington by showing the type of determination that may lead them to their first title. The Dream easily won the next two games with a combination of stout defense and ferocious rebounding to advance to the conference finals to take on Indiana.

The Dream knocked them off just as efficiently. In the past four games, the Dream have held opponents to averages of 35.4 percent shooting and a plus-10.3 rebounding margin to win by an average of 11.25 points.

“We know if we play our best defense, we are going to be hard to beat,” Armintie Herrington said. “We bought in right in time, and it’s critical we do the same thing against Minnesota.”

The challenge will be difficult.

Minnesota posted the league’s best regular-season record (26-8), including tying for the league’s best home record (15-2). The Lynx swept their first two playoff opponents by an average of 12.25 points per game.

They are similar in some ways to the Dream in that they are athletic, aggressive on defense and have multiple scorers. In addition to former Collins Hill standout Maya Moore, who leads the Lynx with a playoffs average of 21.5 points per game, the team also features Seimone Augustus (17.3 points per game in playoffs), Rebekkah Brunson (10.8 points, 10.3 rebounds per game in playoffs) and Lindsay Whalen (9 points per game in playoffs).

“The way that Atlanta does it is very, very different than the way that we do it,” Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said. “I think that’s kind of the fun of the series as we prepare for it. I know that they pose tremendous challenges at every position. They’re extremely athletic, and they’ll challenge our defensive team in the same way I know that our players, our skill level will challenge their team.”

Both teams will draw on experiences of past finals.

Minnesota swept Atlanta in 2011 — the second consecutive year the Dream went winless in the championship round — before the Lynx were beaten by Indiana for the title last year.

McCoughtry and the nucleus of the Dream, which includes Erika de Souza and Herrington, can draw on those failures as they head into this year’s best-of-five series.

“We know what it takes to get there,” McCoughtry said. “We know what the atmosphere in Minnesota will be like. It will take more focus. Just try to figure out a way to get over the hump.”

Dream coach and general manager Fred Williams said the team has learned from those past finals that it can’t “run, run, run” all the time. The Dream must get into half-court sets, which they have excelled at in the past four playoff games on the strength of the play of de Souza, McCoughtry and Herrington.

De Souza, a 6-foot-5 center, has averaged 11.6 points and 11 rebounds in the playoffs. McCoughtry, a 6-1 forward, has averaged 19.6 points in the playoffs to go with a league-best 13 steals. Herrington, an aggressive 5-9 forward, has averaged 13 points and 6.7 rebounds in the past three games.