After an incredible shooting performance against the Dream — when the Connecticut Sun shot 61.7 percent from the field Sunday — one would think Atlanta coach Marynell Meadors would tell her team to forget about it. The Sun can’t shoot that well again, right?
But that kind of mindset is wrong, according to Meadors.
“Because they are quite capable of doing that same thing again,” she said. “We’re just going to have to play four quarters. I thought our consistency [Friday night against the Los Angeles Sparks] is something we’re going to have to have every single game. We can always be very good on the defensive end.
“On offense, we may not always shoot the ball as well, but the most consistent part of our game always needs to be on the defensive end.”
Both teams enter Sunday’s game off dominant victories Friday night. The Dream and Sun set franchise records for margin of victory over the Sparks and New York Liberty, respectively. Meadors already is bracing for the possibility of her team coming out flat after playing so well Friday.
“I’m sure that when you play on such an emotional high as we did, that you’re going to have some kind of letdown because that happens in every sport,” she said. “You hope you can avoid that, and you hope you can play solid and steady throughout the game.”
To win their second consecutive game, Meadors knows that the Dream must try to corral Connecticut star Tina Charles.
“We will defend harder and better than we did [against her] last Sunday,” Meadors said of Charles, who scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the 92-73 victory over the Dream and recorded her 50th double-double.
Whether the Dream’s own star, Angel McCoughtry, is out of the starting lineup for the second consecutive game is “a game-time decision,” according to Meadors. McCoughtry was relegated to the bench Friday night because of what Meadors called “a violation of team rules.” McCoughtry still shined in her reserve role by scoring a game-high 31 points against the Sparks.
Meadors also said she had not talked to her star player about the comments made to The Associated Press following Friday’s game, in which McCoughtry said, “I didn’t violate team rules.’’ The coach shot down any assertion that a rift was developing between her and her best player.
“We don’t have any issues,” Meadors said. “There are no issues.”
Ritchie excited for future
WNBA president Laurel Ritchie met with Atlanta media members Friday before the Dream’s game. Ritchie said she was pleased with the success the WNBA has had with its most prominent partner, Boost Mobile, which signed on in August.
Ritchie announced Friday that the league was entering into a partnership with 100 Black Men of America, which she called a good fit in three different areas: demographics, cultural and mission.
And the president also had an optimistic view of the most important product the league puts forth — the one it puts on the court.
“When I look at the game, while there is always room for improvement, I think the level of play right now is pretty darn good,” she said. “ ... I know that if you spoke to the players they would never say, ‘Yeah, we’re there.’ They would want to push back, but I feel very good about where the game is, and now I just want to expose more people to it.”
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