Dream's McCoughtry strives to be a leader as well as scorer

Sometimes it is easy to forget that Dream guard Angel McCoughtry is 23 years old and in her second season in the WNBA.

McCoughtry looks like she has been in the league forever when she hits jump shots from all over the court and slashes through the lane for one of her patented I-don’t-care-if-I-get-hit-or-hurt layups. She looks like a veteran when she steals the ball from an unsuspecting guard or jumps into the lane to intercept a pass, which leads to an uncontested layup. And she shows the icy nerves of a seasoned champion when she hits clutch free throws late in games.

But the truth is, McCoughtry is still learning and trying to perfect the leadership skills necessary to help her team win a championship.

The evolving leadership of McCoughtry will be tested Tuesday night when the Dream play host to the New York Liberty in Game Two of the Eastern Conference finals needing one victory to sweep the series and advance to the WNBA Finals.

"This is real special, but we have to stay focused," McCoughtry said.

The strategy for the Liberty will probably be the same plan that every opponent of the Dream has had this season -- don’t let McCoughtry beat them. She has been double- and triple-teamed in every game. Despite that, she averaged 21.1 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.1 assists.

McCoughtry has scored more than 20 points in every playoff game this season. She started the playoffs with 28 points, seven rebounds and three steals to lead the fourth-seeded Dream to a 95-90 upset at top-seeded Washington in the first game of the conference semifinals on Aug. 25.

But McCoughtry has learned that there is more to leading a team than just scoring.

“[Getting double- and triple-teamed] is a compliment, but now I have to -- when I have this -- to get my teammates involved and to really be a better passer out of the double team,” McCoughtry said.

Dream forward Sancho Lyttle said McCoughtry has been a good team player and has trusted her teammates all season long, but she can see her evolving.

“[McCoughtry's] instinct is putting the ball in the basket, but now that teams have been trying to stop us she finds open players,” Lyttle said.

Dream coach Marynell Meadors said McCoughtry is seeing that passing the ball more against double and triple teams can not only help her teammates, but herself.

“[McCoughtry] is quite capable of putting the team on her back, though, and sometimes she feels like she needs to do that,” Meadors said. “I think she is a young player that is realizing. I think she’s getting double- and sometimes triple-teamed, and she feeds it to someone else.”

McCoughtry also has learned that part of being a leader is having the right attitude, because sometimes her teammates will feed off her emotions.

She said she wasn’t displaying the emotions the Dream needed when they lost nine of their last 14 games to end the regular season.

“That was my fault late in the season, because I wasn’t leading the way I should have been,” McCoughtry said. “It was more my demeanor and my attitude and my body language. I wasn’t as positive as I should have been in everything.”

McCoughtry has made a concerted effort to change her demeanor in the playoffs, and it has paid dividends with her teammates. She has discovered that an uplifting attitude can go a long way.